Not long after I started writing my Music Spotlight column, I came across one of the greatest voices I’d ever heard in Nashville, Wendy Moten. I even gave her a shoutout when Heidi Newfield released her Barfly Sessions record in 2020.
After Moten rose to fame as the runner-up on NBC’s The Voice in 2021, the rest of the world saw how fabulous she was, and I knew getting an interview would be more of a challenge.
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Frank Stiner was excited when he received the invitation to Titans House in late October along with his cousin as they prepared to buy seats at the new Nissan Stadium.
They are original seat holders from the first hour tickets in Nashville went on sale, in the fifth row of the end zone, and were excited to continue that family tradition by expanding their ticket base from two to four.
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Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s multi-billion dollar transit plan was approved by voters on Tuesday, according to unofficial election results published by the Davidson County Election Commission.
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On October 30th, the Music City Walk of Fame inducted The Fairfield Four, Colin Reed, Bill Cody, and Jimmy Buffett at their 27th Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
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When independent artist Emmy Moyen contacted me, I was unfamiliar with the name, but I was intrigued when I heard her music. She had just the right balance of sweetness and sass, and I wanted to learn more.
Moyen was born in Kentucky but raised in Starkville, Mississippi. Many from her Kentucky family have a background in bluegrass music, which has always been a part of her life.
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Wyatt Rampy, the Republican nominee for Tennessee State Senate District 20, said he is working hard to talk to as many people as he can in Davidson County to get out the vote and defeat incumbent State Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) in the November 5 general election.
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I featured Chase Rice in 2018 when he celebrated achieving number-one status with his blockbuster hit, “Eyes On You.” Early on, Chase Rice was a fixture in the bro-country scene with other megahits like “Ready Set Roll,” “Ride,” “Lonely If You Are,” and “Gonna Wanna Tonight,” to name a few.
But something shifted in the artist recently, who splits his time between Montana and Nashville when, in 2023, he released I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go to Hell. Even by the retro picture of his hero, his dad, Daniel (Danny) Rice, on the album cover, you knew this record would be different. For anyone anticipating the usual new country vibe, boy, were they in for a surprise. With unexpected songs like “Bench Seat” and “Key West & Colorado,” Billboard Magazine called it “one of 2023’s most unexpected artistic pivots” across all genres last year.
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The Tennessee Titans and WeGo Public Transit have partnered to offer free bus service on days the NFL team plays at Nissan Stadium in Nashville.
“We’re excited to expand and enhance our collaboration with WeGo into the full Titans season,” Burke Nihill, Titans president and CEO, said in a statement. “Free bus service is an incredible addition to the many ways to get to Titans home games.”
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At 9:30 am CT today, September 3, 2024, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023 murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School and was subsequently killed by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers. Later that same day MNPD obtained this journal and a spiral notebook from the vehicle Hale used to drive to the school. MNPD Chief John Drake initially described this journal and the spiral notebook as the “manifesto” of Hale.
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Local authorities say that six people were injured during a bar shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.
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The Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH), will travel to Nashville next week to attend a fundraiser hosted by Nashville businessman and former Trump administration official Adam Boehler and his wife, Shira Boehler, according to a flier for the event first obtained by the Tennessee Lookout.
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Music Spotlight and 2X Texas radio chart-topping artist Amanda Kate Ferris has released her sophomore album, Rope the Wind, and it is available now.
Produced by Jimmy Ritchey, the 10-track project features songs by numerous acclaimed writers and artists, including GRAMMY-winners Hillary Lindsey, Liz Rose, and Lori McKenna, as well as ACM and CMA Entertainer of the Year Lainey Wilson and others.
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The Nashville-based coffee company Crockett Coffee partnered with the Tunnel to Towers Foundation to donate a portion of its sales towards initiatives benefiting the families of fallen heroes, injured first responders, and veterans.
Crockett Coffee was founded by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton – hosts of the popular radio show The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, heard across 500 stations nationwide – and Buck’s entrepreneur brother, Mason Sexton.
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Over the past week, The Tennessee Star has been tracking Tennessee’s apparent “ghost donors” to far-left Political Action Committee (PAC) ActBlue who have contributed more than 1,000 times to the organization since the beginning of 2023.
Cynthia Matthews of Nashville is another “ghost donor” identified by The Star.
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The first ever Major League Baseball (MLB) game is set for about this time next, according to Gov. Bill Lee (R).
The governor’s office said in a release that the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves will play a regular season game marketed as the MLB Speedway Classic at Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway on August 2, 2025.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Thursday that his office will appeal the July 29 ruling by the Davidson County Chancery Court in the case challenging a state law which caps the number of elected officials in the Metro Nashville-Davidson County City Council to 20.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that Nashville will soon be the new home of the agency’s main field office in Tennessee.
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he Davidson County Chancery Court ruled 2-1 on Monday that Tennessee’s law capping the number of elected officials in the Metro Nashville-Davidson County City Council to 20 is unconstitutional.
Governor Bill Lee signed SB87/HB48 into law on March 9, 2023, which requires that the governing body of a municipality or Metropolitan government must “dissolve, combine, or reapportion districts or wards, as necessary, so that the number of members elected to the governing body does not exceed 20 voting members.”
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Neither the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) nor the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) was willing to confirm whether they are investigating a Nashville woman who threatened to kill former President Trump at while he gave a keynote speech at Bitcoin 2024, the largest Bitcoin conference in the world.
The conference was held over the weekend in Nashville.
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The Tennessee Department of General Services and Governor Bill Lee’s office are asking for donations of holiday ornaments and a tree for this year’s Christmas display at the State Capitol.
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Tens of thousands of people traveled to Nashville for former President Donald Trump’s keynote speech at the world’s largest Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin 2024, on Saturday at Music City Center.
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A federal grand jury indicted a Nashville man accused of shooting an 18-year-old six times on the steps of a WeGo bus station in May, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kenneth Johnson, 31, was arrested by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers on May 16 after he allegedly shot the 18-year-old six times at the WeGo bus station located at the intersection of Rep John Lewis Way & MLK Jr Blvd.
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A federal grand jury indicted a Murfreesboro man accused of opening fire inside a restaurant in the Salemtown neighborhood of Nashville on Easter Sunday, according to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Anton Rucker, 47, was arrested in Princeton, Kentucky by TITANS (The Investigative Team Addressing Neighborhood Shootings) detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department two days following the Easter Sunday shooting which killed one – a 33-year old man named Allen Beachem – and injured multiple others.
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Metro Nashville Council Member Ginny Welsch (District 16) said former President Donald Trump “called for” the July 13 assassination attempt he survived during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump was grazed by a single bullet in his upper right ear in what is formally being investigated as a failed assassination attempt during the rally last week.
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Chark Kinsolving, the owner of two Nashville clubs, is being condemned on social media for a post he made about the failed assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump over the weekend.
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Former President Donald Trump will speak at the world’s largest Bitcoin conference in Nashville from July 25-27 this month.
This year’s conference, Bitcoin 2024, is being held at Music City Center for the first time after being held in Miami, Florida, for the past three years.
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The leftwing media and the mayor of Nashville Sunday slammed a group of “white nationalists,” long suspected as being false flag operators, for marching in Nashville.
“Yesterday, a number of people shockingly comfortable publicly identifying themselves as white nationalists marched through Nashville. My first priority in this moment—as always—was the safety of Nashvillians,” said Mayor Freddie O’Connell on X, referencing a group called Patriot Front. “I refuse to platform hate actors, so I have no interest in giving any group or member the attention they seek.”
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A father is pleading for change to Nashville’s criminal justice system after his daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend just days after he was released from the Davidson County Jail.
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Recovering journalist and Nashville-area public policy expert Clint Brewer said Metro Nashville Council Member Courtney Johnston, who is running in the August 1 Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, has some “real support” among voters in Davidson County.
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The editor-in-chief and publisher of The Tennessee Star was ordered to appear in court last week and threatened with charges of contempt after his newspaper reported on an anonymously leaked collection of documents authored by Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Michael Patrick Leahy was joined by his attorneys in court on Monday for a “show-cause hearing,” where the journalist was asked by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles to demonstrate why his outlet’s reporting does not subject him to contempt proceedings and sanctions.
On March 27, 2023, Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale) entered the Covenant School armed with three semiautomatic guns and murdered six people, including three 9-year-old children. Hale, who was eventually shot and killed by police in the school, was a transgender man and former student at Covenant who harbored extremist sentiments on race, gender, and politics. The massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting in Tennessee history.
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Christian music artist Gary Chapman sat down for an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy on Friday to reminisce on his career in the entertainment industry.
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Tennessee U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05) was the resounding victor among attendees at the Davidson County Republican Party’s annual picnic event on Saturday who participated in a straw poll weighing candidates running in the August 1 Republican primary for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District.
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According to a spokesperson for Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, the mayor’s office has no official role in the implementation of a gay pride crosswalk in the city.
The Tennessee Star reported Wednesday that a group of volunteers will paint a rainbow-colored crosswalk at the intersection of 14th St and Woodland St on June 29.
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Eligible Davidson County residents are able to receive free fans or air conditioning units this summer by applying for the Metro Action Commission’s Fan and Air Conditioner Program.
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Autopsy results in the high profile death of college student Riley Strain were released Tuesday.
According to several reports, Strain’s cause of death is officially lists as “drowning and ethanol intoxication.” His death was classified as accidental.
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Amazon announced Tuesday that it will invest another $2.2 billion in its Housing Equity Fund to create more than 21,000 new affordable housing units in Nashville and two other of its hometown communities.
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Nashvillians will participate in the National Women’s Strike, which is an event hosted by the Women’s March.
On Monday, June 24, the say that Roe v. Wade was overturned, turning abortion laws back over to the states, women will take the day off and strike at the Tennessee State Capitol, along with counterparts in around 100 other cities.
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The mental health facility alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure was ordered to be released to on Monday to an “open-door” psychiatric treatment center in East Tennessee.
Pasadena Villa in Sevierville, Tennessee, houses patients who voluntarily stay there, according to testimony by Admissions Coordinator Sabina Shakoor. Personnel cannot force patients to stay, and patients have left the facility voluntarily in the past, she continued.
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Federal District Court Judge Alistair Newbern ordered the temporary release of transgender alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure on Monday but did not hear victim statements beforehand.
Newbern ordered McClure, who is charged with cyberstalking, to be released the same day to voluntary mental health in-patient treatment in Sevierville, Tennessee, rather than keep her in federal custody. Before Monday, McClure was held in solitary confinement.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) announced Monday morging that it shuttered a market in North Nashville due to excessive violence.
“MNPD officers & detectives now are raiding & padlocking Star Market, 1613 Buchanan St, after a prolonged disruption of quality of life in this area (drug deals, gunshots, fighting, drunkenness). This is a court ordered action under TN’s public nuisance law,” MNPD said on its X account.
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A report from POD, the moving and storage company, says that three cities in Tennessee are among the top 20 in America where people are moving.
“We’re seeing more people move to the Southern Appalachian region, which includes states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama,” the report said. “Tennessee tied with Florida for the third most popular state for new moves.”
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A Nashville church will hold a “Spirituality Night” during June’s LGBT Pride festivities.
On June 12, the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville will host the event.
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The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Thursday confirmed the arrest of 15-year-old De’Anthony Osasosifo and named him as a suspect in the Wednesday night shooting that left a 13-year-old dead and his 16-year-old sister hospitalized.
MNPD revealed on social media that a 13-year-old boy was fatally wounded and his 16-year-old sister was shot and suffered non-life threatening injuries after “gunfire erupted during a teen fight” in the parking lot of the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue.
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Lenny Magill, founder and CEO of the GlockStore, said the store’s fourth annual open house event will be held this Saturday to celebrate the company’s move from San Diego, California, to the Volunteer State.
“Our open house is this Saturday at 10 a.m. This is our fourth year of celebrating the move from California to Nashville. We love Nashville. At the event this weekend, we’ll have two shooting competitions. We’ve got a lot of fun. Excellent prices on guns. Gun prices that you never see again. They’re super low. Of course, all of our parts and pieces that we manufacture here in Nashville are going to be on sale as well. We’ve got free ice cream. We’ve got food trucks. We’ve got the shooting competitions, which I said, which is a low light competition and a speed competition and we are going to be raffling off a full fledged Glock 17 custom gun,” Magill said on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
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Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a letter signed by eight other members of the Tennessee Congressional delegation to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding answers regarding the immigration status of a 23-year old illegal alien who allegedly followed a woman into a bathroom at the Nashville Sundae Club and groped her
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The man police arrested for an alleged May 11 sexual assault of a woman outside a Vanderbilt Medical Center parking garage is a sex offender and a repeat felon, according to MNPD and court records about the suspect.
The suspect is Daniel Revette, 39. Before he was arrested, he already had outstanding warrants for attempted rape, sexual battery, and kidnapping, MNPD posted to X. Officers arrested Revette after he tried to be admission to a Nashville hospital for an evaluation.
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Eighty-three percent of people who answered a Fox 17 News online survey said they do not feel safe on Metro Nashville’s WeGo public buses.
Fox 17 posted the survey to X after a recent string of violent incidents at WeGo locations in Nashville and criticism of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s efforts to invest in the city’s public buses.
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Several Nashville business leaders have publicly allied themselves with Nashville Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston, the Republican challenger to Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), since she announced her campaign in April.
Bobby Joslin, owner of Joslin and Son Sign Company, which has provided signs to many Nashville businesses, welcomed Johnston at an annual fish fry event on Thursday by gifting her a prominent sign, The Nashville Banner reported. Prominent Nashville and Tennessee political figures attended the event, including former Governor Bill Haslam, former Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell, former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, and several current and former candidates for office representing both parties.
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Gun thefts from vehicles in Nashville have decreased compared to this time last year, according to numbers released by Metro Nashville Police Department on Wednesday. The fall in thefts came after MNPD started an initiative to combat car theft and related crimes.
MNPD said 305 guns have been stolen from Nashville vehicles so far in 2024, according to a Wednesday press release. Numbers from around this time last year recorded 477 gun thefts from vehicles, making for a 36 percent decrease.
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The latest Vanderbilt Poll paints a picture of a politically divided Tennessee, but the poll’s methodology reveals its creators prioritized registered voters in the Nashville area.
The Vanderbilt Poll, launched by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in an attempt to provide a nonpartisan reading of public opinion, portrayed Tennesseans as overall politically conservative but starkly divided over certain issues.
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