LISA DENTON: Barry, Friday marks the final Nightfall concert of the season, and I have some late-breaking news. The True Loves were originally scheduled to perform, but they’ve been replaced by Davina and the Vagabonds. I don’t know the reason behind the True Loves’ cancellation, but I suspect they might make an appearance at a future Nightfall. I’ve always heard that True Loves waits.
BARRY COURTER: Who ever really knows why True Loves go away? Or stomp on our hearts like a brown paper bag lit on fire and tossed on a front porch at Halloween. Wait, did I say all of that out loud?
LISA: Uh, yeah, you kinda did. I say we shouldn’t worry about losing True Loves. It’s not us. It’s them.
Davina and the Vagabonds are a solid replacement. Last month, Rolling Stone named their latest single, “I Can’t Believe I Let You Go,” as one of the “Top 10 Best Americana Songs To Hear Now.” Of course that’s the kind of line I’d want to be hearing from True Loves right about now, but I guess we need to get over it.
BARRY: Maybe they’re just not that into us. We can do this all day.
LISA: So speaking of things ending, it’s also the last hurrah for SoakYa. Lake Winnepesaukah will still be open weekends through September, and then for Lake WinnepeSpookah in October, but the last time to enjoy the water park is the upcoming Labor Day weekend. And then they turn off the hose.
BARRY: They might want to reconsider staying open given this heat wave. The Levitt AMP Series continues this week with Valerie June at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center on Thursday, and the Communicators return to Songbirds on Friday with That ’90s Show. June sings the truth and is pretty amazing. She’s from Humboldt, Tennessee, and doesn’t sound like anyone else I can think of, but she is Southern to the core.
LISA: The Marcus King Band will be at Walker Theatre on Tuesday. King is the son of blues guitarist Marvin King and has been playing guitar since he was 8 years old, so he’s got the chops. He played on one of his dad’s albums when he was 11 and has since performed with the likes of Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks. Oh, and he’s now reached the ripe old age of 23.
BARRY: He is also pretty amazing, as his resume proves.
LISA: And Saturday the Bobby Stone Film Series will screen “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Not to give too much away, in case spoiler alerts still apply to a film released in 1981, but the scene where Indiana Jones faces down a scimitar-wielding swordsman was not in the script. Well, their face-off was in the script, but Harrison Ford apparently had a case of dysentery during filming and didn’t want to shoot the rest of the scene under a blistering sun in Tunisia. So he figured out a faster way to be rid of the swordsman. And it may be the best scene in the movie.
BARRY: It’s one of my favorites, too. The Sunday Stone movie is “Hud,” another classic with Paul Newman.
The Wine & Whiskey Festival is this weekend on Station Street. The $30 ticket gets you a punch card to try 15 tastings of wine or whiskey and music from Electric Avenue, Neon Moon, The White Liars and Joey Winslett Band as well as admission to after-parties at Regan’s Place, Westbound Bar, Backstage Bar and Songbirds.
LISA: A wine and whiskey festival sounds like the perfect way to forget True Loves.
Get event details every Thursday in ChattanoogaNow or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281. Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.