Steve Wildsmith

As one of pop culture’s most recognizable Jewish figures, Matisyahu — who performs this weekend at the University of Tennessee and is on the cover of the Aug. 20 edition of The Daily Times Weekend entertainment section — is often asked to weigh in on the neverending strife in the Middle East.

For the most part, he told me this week, he chooses not to engage in debate or discussion.

“With what I’m doing, there’s enough bad press for Israel right now, which means bad press for Jews,” he said. “I’m here, and I’m making music — I’m not a politician, and I’m not a leader of a country making decisions about lives. Those are the difficult decisions that leaders need to make; I’m involved in something completely different.

“It’s art and inspiration, and I don’t think there’s any point for me to tell people what my feelings about poltiics are. That’s irrelevant to what I do.”

He does, however, offer one caveat — as someone troubled for the future not just of his people, but of all people.

“All of this anti-Israeli sentiment going on around the world, I believe, is really just anti-Semitism masked as something else — blaming the Jews for the world’s problems,” he said. “It’s very similar to what was happening with the Jews at the beginning of the Holocaust, and it concerns me.”

Back in November, we caught up with local boy Robb “Storm” Taylor, a Heritage High School grad (class of ‘85) who’s been working for the past several years on a documentary of Jesco White, the famous “dancing outlaw” of West Virginia.

First featured in a PBS documentary in 1991, White grew to — and into — something of a rural legend: a hard-living, hard-drinking backwoods hillbilly who carries on the tradition of mountain dancing, a mix of clog and tap that’s native to Appalachia. Taylor’s documentary — “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” — raised White’s profile even more, and after being featured at a number of prestigious film festivals around the country, it’s getting a proper screening here in East Tennessee.

(Click here to watch the trailer. Or you can click here to rent and watch it online.)

It’ll be shown on Friday, June 4, at “The Shed” at Smoky Mountain Harley Davidson, 1820 W. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Maryville. It’s a limited-seating event — only $100 tickets will be sold. Those cost $15; get them here.

Despite his various ventures, Taylor has remained a Blount County resident. While at UT, he was part-owner of The Underground, a dance club where he served as deejay. During that time, he befriended P.J. Clapp, a South-Doyle high graduate who would go on to stardom as Johnny Knoxville. From there, he did some traveling with and production work for the MTV show that Knoxville made famous — “Jackass.” He had an idea for his own program, and after returning to Maryville to work in real estate and development, his idea was turned into a program on the Turner South network. “Yokel” ran for a season before Fox acquired Turner South and slowly killed the network.

Johnny Knoxville serves as producer for the White documentary; in addition to that, Taylor has recently launched a new pop culture publication, One Eighty Magazine.

I ran into him Friday at “The Shed,” and he said The Whites will likely be making the trip down from West Virginia to attend the June 4 screening.

If you think East Tennessee was spared the brunt of those devastating storms that flooded so much of Middle Tennessee, think again — one of this area’s most precious cultural resources, WDVX-FM, is off the air after the weekend’s rough weather.

According to a press release from WDVX GM Linda Billman: “Listeners to WDVX are currently without the local broadcast of the radio station.  The WDVX transmitter was damaged by lightning over the weekend.  No word yet on when the broadcast will be restored; however, the station’s webcast is available at wdvx.com. The transmitter site is located on Cross Mountain in Campbell County, the highest point in the Cumberland Mountains.  The height that lets the 200 watt signal travel well also makes the site prone to lightening strikes.”

No word yet on how the outtage will affect WDVX activities such as the popular “Blue Plate Special.” Plans are still under way for the May 22 Sixth Annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash, scheduled for 2-8 p.m. in World’s Fair Park amphitheater. According to another WDVX release:

“Participating artists will be covering and celebrating Bob Dylan’s songwriting in their own style, ranging from blues to bluegrass and points in between. Featured acts this year include The Carawan Family, Van Eaton, Scott Lee, Black Cadillacs, The Songbirds, Kelle Jolly, Tim Lee 3, Y’uns, the Gnarly Whals, Running Dogs, MacDaddies, Greg Horne, Early Morning Stringdusters and the Salamander Kings — a first time appearance of a group including Bob Deck, Christian Lange and Phil Hardison. David Dwyer and Steve Dupree will team up to emcee the concert.

Tickets are available for only $10 in advance of the show and can be purchased at The Blue Plate Special, online at wdvx.com or by calling the station at (865) 544-1029. Tickets will also be available for $15 at the gate the day of the show. Proceeds from the concert event benefit East Tennessee’s Own independent and community supported radio station WDVX; home of The Blue Plate Special.”

As journalists, we make it a rule not to get involved in the things that we cover.

Unless we write an opinion column, we’re dissuaded from taking part in politics. We’re observers … chroniclers … scribes. We cover the news, not make it.

Which made it extremely bizarre when country star Jo Dee Messina called out The Daily Times during Friday night’s performance at the new Clayton Center for the Arts on the Maryville College campus.

It started after her second song, “I’m Alright,” when she opened up the floor for questions from the audience. Clad in tastefully ripped jeans and a faux leather jacket that played up her flame-haired biker-babe image, she was relaxed and good-natured. Her band played most of the show sitting on the easy chair and sofa that were part of the stage decor, all added as part of her intimate “Music Room Series” of shows.

Then, she noticed Daily Times photographer Daryl Sullivan in the corner, taking pictures. She asked him which publication he was working for, and when she repeated his answer — “The Daily Times” — the crowd cheered. (Gotta say, it’s nice to get recognition from the audience.) Messina, however, arched one eyebrow.

“Let me tell you something about The Daily Times,” she said. “You all think it’s a small paper. A hometown paper. But it’s not. It’s a lot more than that.”

She went on to describe how she did an interview with yours truly for the March 19 edition of Weekend — an interview in which she discussed her frustrations with her label, Curb Records, and her inability to put out an album for the past several years because of it.

Curb executives, she said, apparently read The Daily Times. As does Great American Country. As does AOL. Because all of them picked up the story that ran in Weekend, and Messina found herself in some hot water over her comments.

Now, she never complained that it was a bad article, or that she was misquoted — in fact, she called it “beautiful” and admitted that she doesn’t like to bite her tongue. But the label asked her to release a statement either clarifying or recanting some of her remarks … which she has yet to do, she proudly pointed out.

At that point, she moved on to other questions. And I couldn’t resist. I raised my hand. And identified myself when she called on me.

It took a second for my name — and publication — to sink in. Then she did a double-take.

“Oh s–t! You’re the guy who wrote the article!” She giggled and turned toward the band, obviously a little taken aback. But she rebounded quickly, jokingly declaring, “I’m not answering any more of your questions!” She went on to say, “Let me tell you — you’re a big deal. People are reading your stuff.”

A couple of songs later, she remarked that she was a little nervous, knowing I was in the audience and that I might write something negative if I wasn’t impressed.

Relax, Ms. Messina. I was very impressed. Your voice is beautiful, your showmanship is masterful and your stage presence is dynamic. I hate I had to leave early, but I’ll share with you a snippet of my notes:

“Incredible voice! Any label that would shut her down is run by asshats.”

LOCAL
Southbound (cover story)
The Drunk Uncles: (cover story)
Jonathan Sexton and The Big Love Choir (cover story)
Whitechapel (front page story)
Dirty Guv’nahs 1 (cover story)
Royal Bangs (cover story)
R.B. Morris (cover story)
Maryville Metal Fest (cover story)
Brandy Robinson (cover story)
Scott Miller (cover story)
The Black Lillies (cover story)
Teenage Love13 (cover story)
Jill Andrews
Drunk Uncles 1
Whitechapel
The Dirty Guv’nahs
Skyfall
Mic Harrison and The High Score
Homer Hart
“Sneaky” Pete Rizzo
Color of Fate
Bellfield
Senryu
Ian Thomas
Soundtrack Black
Robinella: Final Barley’s gig
Mountain Folk Reunion
Cain and Annabelle
Diacon-Panthers
The Dirty Works
Seeing Skies
Kings County Gumbo
John Myers
The Dirty Gunnz
Christopher Scum
Bright Shining Lie
J.C. and The Dirty Smokers
Sisters of the Silver Sage
Kevin Abernathy Band
Scott McMahan
Facelock
Awake the Suffering
Madeline Ava
The Retroholics
The LoneTones
1220
Dishwater Blonde
The American Plague
Mr. Kobayashi
Roscoe Morgan
Johnson Swingtet
Cutthroat Shamrock
Van Eaton
Steve Kaufman
Taylor Brown
Mumbillies
Panorama
Allen Swank
Flashback
Angel Zuniga Martinez
The Akashic Mysteries
Jamie Cook
Dig 6 Down
Avenue C Band
Brad Walker Orchestra

COUNTRY
Mark Stuart and the Bastard Sons
Darius Rucker
Eric Church
Jamey Johnson
Chris Knight
Mindy Smith
Patty Loveless
Chris Young
Sawyer Brown
Rodney Atkins
Justin Moore
Trailer Choir
April Taylor
Little Big Town
Mickey Raphael (Willie Nelson’s harmonica player)

COMEDY
Bill Cosby
Margaret Cho
Bean and Bailey
Ralphie May
Lewis Black

BLUES/BLUES-ROCK
John D’Amato
Webb Wilder: January feature
Webb Wilder
Bill Sheffield
Deb Callahan
Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials
Devon Allman’s Honeytribe
Steepwater Band
J.J. Grey and Mofro
Charlie Morris Band
Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby
T-Model Ford
Geoff Achison
Scissormen
Zac Harmon
Shawn Kellerman
Bex Marshall
Damon Fowler
Harmonica Red
The Breeze Kings
Biscuit Miller and the Mix
Willie “Big Eyes” Smith

SINGER-SONGWRITER
Toby Lightman
Louise Mosrie
Hamell on Trial
Brett Dennen
A.A. Bondy: “Those American Hearts”
A.A. Bondy
Ari Hest
George McConnell
William Fitzsimmons
Vienna Teng
Paul Thorn
Denitia Odigie
Leon Redbone
Matt Urmy
Joan Baez
Dar Williams
Chris Trapper
James McMurtry
Colin Hay
Mark Wagner
Andrew Bird
Richard Lloyd
Eugene Chadbourne
Malcolm Holcombe
Jennie DeVoe
Matt Butcher
Eleni Mandell
Matthew Perryman Jones
ELECTRONIC
Imogen Heap
Ana Sia
Health
Dan Deacon
Peaches
Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

CHRISTIAN
MercyMe
Disciple
NewSong
Chris Tomlin
NeedToBreathe
Third Day
Stryper
Fireflight
Skillet

FINE ARTS, CULTURE, EVENTS, VENUES
Hard Knox Roller Girls
Broadway at the Tennessee: “Hairspray”
Broadway at the Tennessee: “Sweeney Todd”
Broadway at the Tennessee: “Stomp”
Broadway at the Tennessee: “The Wizard of Oz”
Appalachian Ballet Company: “Nutcracker”
Appalachian Ballet Company: spring production
Appalachian Ballet Company: “Blue Jeans and Ballet”
The Rockettes
Vice City
Maryville College: Fine Arts Showcase
Maryville College: Fine Arts preview
Activism on the Maryville College campus
Maryville College Theatre Department: “The Things They Carried”
Steve Kaufman’s Acoustic Concert Series
Stonewall Gardens
Boomsday
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra: season preview
Maryville High School Drama: “Wizard of Oz”
Spring and summer festival season
Knoxville Opera: “Rigoletto”
Big Ears Festival
Kodo

BLUEGRASS/AMERICANA
North Mississippi Allstars
Indigo Girls
Hill Country Revue: Cody Dickinison reflects on his father’s death
Stacie Collins
Donna Hughes
Slobberbone
Kindling Stone
Dave Rawlings Machine
Joe Buck Yourself
Just Us Bluegrass Band
Two Man Gentlemen Band
Tennessee Hollow
Alejandro Escovedo
Bloodkin
Drive-By Truckers
Lambchop
Larry Cordle and Lonesome Standard Time
The Corduroy Road
Andy Friedman and the Other Failures
Reckless Kelly
Lucero: February cover story
Lucero
Carrie Rodriguez
Wayne “The Train” Hancock
Justin Townes Earle
Kathleen Edwards
Steve Smith
Jason Isbell
BeauSoleil
Felice Brothers
The Baker Family
Blue Mother Tupelo
Todd Snider
Those Darlins
Hokum’s Heroes
The Duhks
Caddle
Deadstring Brothers
The Defibulators
Ray Wylie Hubbard
Roger Clyne and The Peacemakers
Rose’s Pawn Shop
Alecia Nugent
The Moaners
John Cowan
The New Familiars
Larry Keel
Blair Crimmins and The Hookers
Old Crow Medicine Show
Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson
Connor Christian and Southern Gothic
Star and Micey
Brand New Strings
Carbon Leaf
John Reischman and The Jaybirds
The Gourds
King Wilkie
Band of Heathens
Hank III
Chris Berardo and The Desberardos
Dave Alvin
Michael Ford Jr. and The Apache Relay

METAL
Mudvayne
LA Guns
Drowning Pool
Hatebreed
Pelican
Lacuna Coil
Lamb of God
Chimaira
Gojira
Mobile Deathcamp
Megadeth

ROCK/POP/PUNK
Tommy Tutone
Bad Boy Troy
Meat Puppets
Rusted Root
Terry Young: “A Tribute to Elvis”
Tesla
Superdrag
Steven Adler
Bret Michaels
The Academy Is …
311
Hoobastank
Gym Class Heroes
Peter Cetera
X
Fiction Family
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Red Collar
The Last Straw
Blackberry Smoke
Bueller
Agent Orange
David Cook
Psychostick
Collective Soul
Cracker
Adrian Belew Power Trio
Chevelle
The Machine: A Tribute to Pink Floyd
Molly Hatchet
Melvins
Little River Band
Kansas
The Black Crowes
Sonic Youth
Les Claypool

INDIE
Amanda Palmer
Lights
The Fall of Troy
Port O’Brien
The Boxer Rebellion
Great Lake Swimmers
Silversun Pickups
Yo La Tengo
Fruit Bats
DD/MM/YYYY
Matt and Kim
Frances
Vetiver
The Rosebuds
Darsombra
Peelander-Z
Against Me!
John Paul Keith and the 145s
A Hawk and a Hacksaw
Elvis Perkins in Dearland
Black Moth Super Rainbow
Barcelona
Wand
Jay Reatard

R&B/SOUL/HIP-HOP/REGGAE/DANCE
The Dynamites feat. Charles Walker
Gorilla Zoe
De La Soul
The Afromotive
Future
The Wailers
Space Capone
New Edition
Arrested Development
Disco Biscuits
Lotus

JAZZ/WORLD MUSIC/AVANT GARDE
Don Byron
Jon Hassell
Wendy Sutter
Grupo Fantasma
Celtic Woman
James Blackshaw
Pink Martini

I’ve been meaning to blog about a new publication that’s not up and running here in Blount County — Round About, fostered by Maryville College and organized by Jeff Taylor, who organized the weekly “The Art of Conversation” poetry readings at Southland Books in Maryville. (You can check out Round About online here.)

The publication is billed as a community journal that focuses on creative writing and community voices, and the second edition comees out this week. To celebrate, Southland Books and The Broadway Brewing Company (both operating at 801 E. Broadway Ave. in Maryville), along with the publication’s volunteer staff, are holding an open house from 5-8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17.

It sounds like the set-up for a righteous punchline — a comedian, a dancing hillbilly from West Virginia and a jack-of-all-trades from Blount County walk down the red carpet at a Los Angeles film premiere …

The thing is, it’s part of Robb “Storm” Taylor’s life — and now the Blount County native is taking his Hollywood connections and brushes with fame and turning it into a new publication that debuted last week under the title of One Eighty Magazine. It’s a free, monthly newspaper-style magazine that addresses various facets of popular culture that Taylor finds intriguing — and it’s all done out of his home on Sevierville Road.

“If something like Metro Pulse or The Daily Times are legitimate news sources — current, updated with what’s going on and what’s timely — I want to be the illegitimate news source,” Taylor told me this week. “I want it to be a true culture magazine — I don’t want to involve politics or religion, because then you’re going to segregate part of your audience and get slammed. I didn’t go to school for journalism, so I’m going to write about whatever’s cool — choppers or skateboarding or golf or tattooing or whatever.

“These are all things that people have an interest in. It was an idea that I tossed around for a month and put together in a month — so basically, it was a two-month process, just me and a designer. And for the first issue, I’m pretty happy with it. I’m thinking about making the next one lemon-scented so it’s better for lining kitty boxes around town.”

Irreverent, good-natured, funny — these are all traits that have made Taylor a local celebrity. Graduating from Heritage High School in 1985 and attending the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, his first enterprise was as part-owner of The Underground, a dance club where he served as deejay. During that time, he befriended P.J. Clapp, a South-Doyle high graduate who would go on to stardom as Johnny Knoxville.

From there, he did some traveling with and production work for the MTV show that Knoxville made famous — “Jackass.” He had an idea for his own program, and after returning to Maryville to work in real estate and development, his idea was turned into a program on the Turner South network. “Yokel” ran for a season before Fox acquired Turner South and slowly killed the network.

From there, Taylor hit up his old pal Knoxville to assist in making a documentary on Jesco White, the famous “dancing outlaw” of West Virginia. First featured in a PBS documentary in 1991, White grew to — and into — something of a rural legend: a hard-living, hard-drinking backwoods hillbilly who carries on the tradition of mountain dancing, a mix of clog and tap that’s native to Appalachia. Taylor’s documentary — “The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia” — raised White’s profile even more, and led to the aforementioned red carpet incident.

“That was insane,” said Taylor, who’s working on a distribution deal to take the documentary to home video, in addition with negotiating with Viacom — MTV’s parent company — for a network airing. He also continues to shop it around at film festivals around the country.

“At the LA Film Festival, Mike Judge (creator of “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill”) came over to the hotel, and we were hanging out with Johnny Knoxville,” Taylor said. “We had some beers, but when we realized we were late for the red carpet (premiere), we were all freaking out. Jesco didn’t want to waste a 12-pack, so he asked me to carry his beer down the red carpet. I didn’t realize he put an open container of Miller Lite in there, so here I am walking down the red carpet, dripping beer.”

Not everyone, however, felt that the documentary is an accomplishment — at a question-and-answer session at an independent film festival in Memphis, one audience member expressed shock and dismay at certain scenes in the documentary and asked why the audience members seemed to find it funny.

“The reality is that some things are so harsh and absurd that you have to laugh at it,” Taylor said. “We didn’t set out to throw our opinions out there or judge these people; it’s a documentary, so we show them for who they are. People either get it or don’t; there’s no real broad in-between. I happen to get it and like it.

“When you do mess with culture, you’ve got to go in with your guard up, because you’re going to be hit. This guy kept going on and on, but after a while, the audience was defending us — turning around and yelling at this guy, and because of the hype, they gave us another screening at that festival.”

White, he added, makes for a much more fascinating celebrity than the folks with whom he’s rubbed shoulders in Hollywood. That’s one reason he’s pitching a Jesco White reality/variety show — a “weird, anything-goes, low-budget kind of thing,” he said. It’s also one of the reasons he’s content to remain right here in Blount County, away from the trappings of Hollywood and the faux sincerity that rings hollow.

But he doesn’t mind making a phone call once in a while, calling in a few favors for the sake of whatever project upon which he happens to be working. Right now, it’s One Eighty Magazine — and while he only has a single issue under his belt, he’s already planning for what the next several will contain.

“The celebrity lifestyle is cool, but it’s not for me,” he said. “I’ve had the good fortune of meeting some celebrities in the past few years, but they’re not paying my light bill, so they were never really on the top of my priority list. But with this, maybe I can get them to help me do something.

“We’ve got some pretty good interviews coming up (including one with John Basedow, the square-jawed purveyor of the “Fitness Made Simple” video series). We’re breaking it down into three categories — Celebrity, Under-the-Radar and ‘Shaking the Common Hand.’ This past issue was a little too male-heavy, but we hope to change that, too — our food critic is female, and we’re going to do a perfume test for an upcoming issue.”

Check out Storm’s shout-out on the “Jackass World” website, as well as the Facebook page for One Eighty Magazine.

Received this e-mail this morning:

Yesterday Ron Meredith, President of Clinton Broadcasters, Inc announced that Clinton Broadcasters, Inc has agreed to purchase WGAP radio from Horne Radio Group.

Meredith said he will return WGAP to the format of country music. Also Trading time will return to WGAP at 9am each day Monday- Sat.
In fact, Meredith said WGAP would simulcast with WYSH radio. He added that the station would now have local news, and Community announcements for Anderson, Blount, and Roane Counties.
Meredith said, “It is my plan to return WGAP to the community radio station it once was.”