The Offspring make 'Pretty Fly' appearance at Merrell Crawfish Boil

The Offspring will headline this weekend's Merrell Crawfish Boil

THURSDAY-SATURDAY, MAY14-16
Franklin Rodeo 2009
Ag Expo Center, 4215 Long Lane
franklinrodeo.com, 591-7959
7 p.m. each night, $15 for adults, $8 for children

The Franklin Rodeo is bringing its brand of fun to town for the 60th time. As with the previous 59 outings, the event will raise money for the Franklin Noon Rotary Club’s community activities.

The Round-Up Party and Rodeo Parade have been taken care of. Now it’s time to get down to the bucking, roping and barrel racing. Some 400 men and women will take part in the events and compete for more than $60,000 in prize money.

Every Franklin Rotary member is assigned a job at the event, which has continued to grow since moving to the Ag Expo Center off Interstate 65 in 2001. Included in the festivities for the first time are the Tennessee Miss Rodeo and Miss Teen Rodeo pageants, which earlier this year said they will move to Franklin.

Look at it this way: Any event that has its own dedicated chiropractor stands to be a crackin’ way to spend a spring night...
— Geert De Lombaerde


theater
THURSDAYS-SUNDAYS, through MAY 24
Third Annual Women’s Work Festival
Z. Alexander Looby Theater
2301 Rosa L Parks Blvd.
681-7220, twtp.org
Single show tickets are just $5, or buy a festival pass for $25
7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 6 p.m. on Sundays

Mother’s Day may be over, but the Tennessee Women’s Theater Project continues to honor the role of women in our lives with its third annual Women’s Work Festival. This remarkable showcase features everything from dance, music and film, to staged readings of new plays and musicals.

“In early 2007, I was sidelined for 10 weeks with a back injury and couldn’t direct the play we had planned to present,” said Maryanna Clarke, the company’s founder and artistic director. “With the theater already booked, we put out a call to women artists, offering our stage for their work. The response was amazing; we knew right away that Women’s Work should be an annual event, and now we’re in our third year.”

Just as the festival has evolved, so have the offerings. This year’s line-up includes local cabaret artist Ginger Newman and singer-songwriter Nancy Moran, along with hit songwriter Kirsti Manna. And the festival closes on May 24 with a film by Academy Award-winning director Pamela Tanner Boll. Who Does She Think She Is?, which picked up the award for Best Documentary in both the 2008 Baltimore and Savannah film festivals, depicts the many struggles and triumphs of women in the arts.
— Amy Stumpfl


music
FRIDAY, MAY 15
Full Moon Pickin' Party
Warner Parks Equestrian Center
2500 Old Hickory Blvd., 370-8053
$20 for adults, $10 for ages 7 to 15, free for children 6 and younger, $5 for pickers with an instrument, 7 to 11 p.m.

The Station Inn is one of Nashville's most authentic places to see some heartfelt, knee-slapping, bluegrass music. The space is cramped with low ceilings and hard chairs, but the experience is the real deal at an institution holding its ground among the glitz and commercialism of The Gulch. The only thing that could possibly give a night at the Inn a run for its money is a night under a brightly-glowing moon as part of the 10th annual season of the Full Moon Pickin' Parties, which begins Friday. These family-friendly fundraisers, held at the Warner Parks Equestrian Center, feature Middle Tennessee's finest bluegrass players bearing their musical souls under a starry sky. Pickers form circles under the trees and around the grounds performing and jamming while several headliners are featured on stage. Adult ticket price includes four beers, and there will be food on site for purchase. The event is hosted by the Friends of Warner Parks, and all the money raised from this laid-back affair goes directly back to the Parks to ensure preservation, protection, funding educational programs and special projects including camp-outs and hayrides for inner city kids.
— Alexa Hinton


music
FRIDAY, MAY 15
Jonell Mosser
3rd and Lindsley, 818 Third Ave. S.
259-9891, jonellmosser.com
7 p.m., $12

Jonell Mosser hasn’t done all that many discs on her own, though the powerful vocalist has had a few excellent solo releases, most notably a fine tribute to Townes Van Zant called Around Townes back in the mid-1990s. However, she’s best known for a long and distinguished stint contributing vocals to many types of projects. She’s worked and/or recorded with Etta James, Rodney Crowell, Patti Smyth, Vince Gills, B.B. King, Wynonna and Waylon Jennings among others. Now, after more than two decades appearing on all sorts of releases and doing numerous sessions, Mosser has made a CD that really spotlights her versatility and appeal titled Trust Yourself. Rather than emphasize any one genre, it features Mosser doing both triumphant covers (the title tune is a Dylan work and she shines on Harlan Howard’s “Chokin’ Kind”) plus several tunes she co-wrote. In addition, she’s recruited many of the area’s finest instrumentalists from saxophonists to guitarists, bassists and of course harmony singers. Hear cuts from her new album Friday night when she performs at 3rd and Lindsley. Read more about Mosser online at nashvillecitypaper.com.
— Ron Wynn


music
FRIDAY, MAY 15
The Minor Kings
12th and Porter, 114 12th Ave. N.
254-7236, theminorkings.com
9 p.m., $10

SESAC's Naked Without Us Fashion Rock Week, running from Wednesday to Sunday, makes a stop Friday night at 12th and Porter, where Nashville-based The Minor Kings fill out a bill that includes local synth-rock regulars Jensen Sportag, Sterling Y and The Worsties. A unique bridge between the worlds of music and fashion, the event allows Nashville acts to soundtrack the runway struts of models decked out in outfits from local designers. The Minor Kings, who last fall released their first EP, The Fetal Position, have built a growing buzz over their melodic but edgy sound. Pulling from a variety of influences, the Kings' songs roll along with impressive guitar riffs, barroom piano parts, rhythmic drums and keyboard lines equally at home on a Prince or Cure tune. The Kings' influences are so broad the band is hard to pin down musically. Guitar rock revisionists? Keyboard pop song deconstructionists? The Kings can play in a lot of different keys. But whatever you want to call the sound, the band brings an intensity to their live shows, driven largely by front man Alex Hall's high wire antics.
— Kyle Swenson


music
FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 15-16
The Merrell Crawfish Boil
Nashville Riverfront Park, 100 1st Ave. at Broadway
merrellcrawfishboil.com
4 p.m. Friday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday
$29.50 per day, $49.50 for both days

Does two days of live music with a decidedly 1990s feel and Louisiana crawfish dishes to ingest sound awesome or what? Whatever.

Yo, dude! The Offspring will headline Friday’s event taking the stage around 9:45 p.m. The band that brought you “Come Out and Play” and “Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)” follows four other acts, including Candlebox, that get the party started when gates open at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, it’s 311 (“Down”) closing things out after a longer day (gates open at 2:30 p.m.) that also boasts Hoobastank and Gavin Rossdale of seminal 90s rockers, Bush (“Everything Zen,” “Glycerine”).

Oh, yeah, and there’s some serious Cajun cuisine. “Fresh” crawfish plates with corn and potatoes are $12. In case crawfish isn't your “cup of tea” there will be several food vendors selling other types of food on the site.

Tickets are available through Ticketmaster and at the Merrell Store in Green Hills or check out the Web site for complete lineup, parking tips and other righteous info.
— Vincent Troia


SATURDAY, MAY 16
A Toast to Tennessee Wine Festival
Nashville Shores, 4001 Bell Road, Hermitage
atoasttotennessee.com
noon to 6 p.m., $25

The sixth annual “A Toast to Tennessee Wine Festival” will feature wines made by 20 Tennessee-based wineries. With more than 2,000 people expected to be in attendance, adult admission includes: a souvenir wine glass, unlimited wine sampling, free gourmet specialty food samples, free wine & food seminars and free lake cruises (every hour on the hour beginning at noon). Wine and food experience seminars will make experts out of wine tasting newcomers, as well as enhance the skills of experienced tasters. Seminars
are offered hourly and last approximately 20 minutes. Space is limited and available on a first-come-first-served basis. The annual event raises thousands of dollars for programs sponsored by the Mount Juliet Chamber of Commerce in Wilson County.
— Drew Ruble


music
SATURDAY, MAY 16
The Wood Brothers
3rd and Lindsley, 818 Third Ave. S.
259-9181, thewoodbrothers.com
9 p.m., $12

Although Chris and Oliver Wood’s initial musical paths differed, over the past three years, they’ve united to make such ambitious and enjoyable songs as The Wood Brothers. Chris has been the bass foundation of the jazz and fusion ensemble Medeski, Martin and Wood for more than 18 years, helping create a unit able to play both booming funk and edgy outside works with equal flair. While still a vital part of that group and now currently working on the third and final release in their three disc Radiolarian series, Chris Wood’s also been touring and performing with his guitarist brother Oliver. After playing with Atlanta blues ace Tinsley Ellis and then forming his own band King Johnson, Oliver’s now putting his compositional acumen to good use with the Wood Brothers. Their first full-length release, Ways Not To Lose, was a selection of National Public Radio among their 11 most overlooked releases of 2006. Their current release, Loaded, was issued last April, and later this month, they’ll release online at CD Baby Up Above My Head, an eight-song collection of covers with the Wood Brothers putting their spin on originals from The Beatles and Steve Earle, among others. Catch them Saturday night along with Katie Herzig.
— Ron Wynn