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Tony Gonzalez has an excellent story about how Metro owns art it can't afford to maintain and how they’re looking into how to fix that.

One of the pieces in desperate need of maintenance is the statue of Jere Baxter. Anne-Leslie Owens, of Metro Arts, tells Gonzalez “I suspect if you asked anybody on the street, you’d have a hard time finding anybody who knows who Jere Baxter is.”

Really? The second or third most interesting Baxter brother and Owens thinks no one knows who he is? Granted, he lacked the superb facial hair of his brother, Edmund, and he wasn’t some great Confederate officer like his brothers, but he was still awesome. The town of Baxter, Tennessee was named after him. He, like his brothers, was a huge proponent of public education for everyone, black and white. I don’t think this was necessarily because they went from Confederate slave owners to progressive civil rights activists, but because they wanted an educated workforce for their railroads.

Plus, y’all, I already told you the greatest story about Jere Baxter and that statue and the anti-Jere Baxter statue his enemies claimed to have put in Centennial Park. Teaser:

Jere Baxter dies and his friends put up a statue in honor of him. Did his enemies really put up a counter-statue of John Murrell in Centennial Park, since, if Nashville was going to be honoring famous thieves, might as well honor the most famous?

If you can read about something that funny — a guy so loved his friends put up a statue to him and so hated his enemies retaliated with another monument — and not remember the name Jere Baxter, then that’s on you. Jere lived a memorable life.

Also, just on a side note, Jere’s mortal enemy, the leader of the faction that might have put up an anti-Jere statue, was Judge Jacob Dickinson (though I don’t think he had anything to do with the anti-Jere monument), who you may remember from recent news stories as the guy who sold Polk Place to developers thus necessitating us rescuing the Polks and reburying them on the State Capitol grounds.

If I wasn’t already Team Jere because of my fondness for his family’s facial hair, I would be just because Dickinson hated him.

By Alexis Clark

NASHVILLE, TN (TSU News Service) – Tennessee State University students aspiring to become nurses one day could be one step closer to achieving that goal thanks to a $200,000 gift from Baxter International Inc. The global medical products company will award four TSU nursing majors academic scholarships for fall 2023.

Baxter’s ongoing financial support is a part of its partnership with the University to inspire and assist African Americans to become healthcare professionals in a field where minorities are underrepresented. The funds will be split into 4-years for each student.

Last year Baxter International Inc., awarded four TSU students $200,000 in scholarship funds to help fulfill their dreams of becoming nurses. Meah Frazier, a freshman nursing major who received the Baxter scholarship last semester, said she was grateful for the opportunity and is pleased to know the company is continuing its commitment to TSU.

“Having a scholarship from Baxter has helped me reduce any financial burdens and has allowed me to pursue my long-term aspiration of becoming a nurse practitioner,” Frazier said. “From a long-term perspective, this will also assist me serving patients in need and giving back to my community.”

She noted that the TSU, Baxter partnership will encourage fellow students to pursue careers in the healthcare industry.

“I believe African American representation in health care is vital as it can assist in eliminating disparities in the medical field such as cultural ignorance and common misconceptions about ‘Black patients’ health.”

Baxter’s chief diversity and inclusion officer, Angela Lee, said she is honored to be a part of this commitment.

“Through Baxter’s Activating Change Today (ACT) initiative, we are proud to continue our relationship with TSU in support of important programming that increases the pipeline of Black students in health and sciences fields,” Lee says.

Dr. Ronald Barredo, Dean of the College of Health Sciences, said the Baxter scholarships will change the personal and professional trajectories of its recipients.

“For one, the burden of financial support throughout their matriculation is lifted as recipients matriculate through the nursing program,” Barredo says.

“Additionally, these recipients are able to focus on their education and training, allowing them to become nurses who, in turn, affect the health trajectories of the patients they touch.”

There are currently 41 students enrolled in the university’s BSN undergraduate nursing program. As of Fall 2022, there are over 750 nursing major students.

For more information about the nursing program, visit www.tnstate.edu/nursing/.

The secret of the success of Wide Awake, the new full-length by Nashville singer-songwriter-rocker Rayland Baxter, lies in how it attempts to depict our current political malaise while honoring the idiosyncrasies of classic British Invasion rock. The record was cut in California with Weezer and Taylor Swift producer Butch Walker, and among other things, it’s an uncanny evocation of The Kinks’ style. Baxter infuses his well-turned compositions with the kind of irony Ray Davies is famous for. Baxter’s new songs are covertly political, and hint at darker ironies that may not seem to belong in straightforward pop music.

Wide Awake never falters in its pursuit of musical synthesis, and it marks a turning point in Baxter’s career. Born in Bon Aqua, Tenn., in 1983, Baxter grew up in Old Hickory and Goodlettsville and moved with his mother to Annapolis, Md., when he began middle school. He went to college at Baltimore’s Loyola University of Maryland, lived in Colorado for a while, and returned to Nashville a decade ago at the behest of his father, well-known pedal steel player and former Bob Dylan sideman Bucky Baxter.

“I wasn’t really finding my way in Colorado like I thought I was going to,” Rayland Baxter tells the Scene from his house in Nashville. Bucky Baxter had co-produced a bluegrass-fusion record by French producer-composer Philippe Cohen Solal, 2007’s The Moonshine Sessions. Rayland came back to Nashville to work as a guitar tech for Solal’s band. After traveling to Paris in April 2008 with the group, he detoured in Israel for six months before finally settling in Nashville later that year.

The younger Baxter had taken up writing during his stay in Israel, and he released his debut full-length, Feathers & Fishhooks, in 2012. That collection of songs performed in a modified ’70s singer-songwriter style was followed by 2015’s Imaginary Man, which featured “Yellow Eyes,” an easy-rolling soul-pop tune that suggested Baxter was operating in the same mode as, say, Lake Street Dive.

Recorded in August 2017 at Walker’s Santa Monica studio RubyRed Productions, Wide Awake expands upon Baxter’s early recordings. Walker’s production hints at the work of John Lennon, The Kinks and Harry Nilsson, while Baxter’s songs are perhaps his strongest to date. He wrote them while living in spartan conditions at Thunder Sound Studio, which occupies a repurposed rubber band factory in the picturesque town of Franklin, Ky.

“I lived in a room about to here,” Baxter says, pointing to a patch of his modestly sized living room. “With a Wurlitzer [electric piano]. I had blanketed the windows, and I had paper all over the walls. It’s a big studio with lots of nooks and crannies.” The resulting songs address such weighty subjects as gun control, crime and romantic obsession. While some of Baxter’s earlier music sounded superficial, Wide Awake manages to be both tough and seductive.

Baxter’s ability to pen political commentary results in “79 Shiny Revolvers,” one of the record’s most John Lennon-esque songs. “Now, everybody talking about it / So we can talk about it now,” he sings. “You really want to save the world, man / Well, I want to save it too.” Baxter underplays the song’s political content, but “79 Shiny Revolvers” subtly reminds listeners that Lennon himself was a victim of gun violence.

If Baxter reveals a knack for the artfully indirect political song on Wide Awake, the record also sounds like great power pop on “Casanova,” a two-chord garage rocker about student loans. Meanwhile, famed steel guitarist Lloyd Green lends licks to “Sandra Monica,” a Kinks-style tune with beguiling chord changes, and renowned percussionist Bobbye Hall also plays on a couple of the record’s tracks.

Wide Awake is high-quality pop that transcends cookie-cutter Americana — Baxter builds songs that gather steam as they proceed, and he cares about such mundane matters as writing good bridges and creating varied arrangements. Baxter’s critique of modern mores is, for the most part, implied throughout the album, though “Hey Larocco” hints at unresolved conflict, and “Casanova” ends with a mournful coda in which Baxter repeats, “Back to the hole that I came from,” until the song ends.

At their best, Baxter’s new songs get within shouting distance of Ray Davies’ character studies, and the music is never less than inventive. Baxter doesn’t ignore the tensions that have turned the American Dream in new directions, but he makes them sound like a lot more fun than they really are.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — On today's MorningLine, Nick Beres is joined by the VP of Operations for Nashville Electric Service, Jack Baxter, to talk about the work that goes into restoring and keeping your power on. For more information, visit https://www.nespower.com/

Portobello America, Inc. will invest approximately $150 million to locate its U.S. headquarters and first U.S. production facility in Baxter, TN. The ceramic tile manufacturer will create 220 jobs in Putnam County, which represents the largest announcement in Baxter during Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration.

Portobello, headquartered in Brazil, is the largest tile manufacturer in Brazil. The company serves countries on five continents and internal markets through multi-brand retailers, the Portobello Shop franchise and sales channel for engineering. Portobello has more than 2,600 employees, responsible for the design and innovation of items that launch trends in architecture and interior design in Brazil.

“Growing and developing in the American market, incorporating the local culture, generating job opportunities and investments through an integrated business model, from production to partnership with distributors, is what guides this new challenge,” said Portobello President Cesar Gomes, Junior. “We are proud to present Portobello America. We believe in the strategy, the market potential and, above all, the combination of our know-how with the American team and culture.”

Portobello will build a new facility at the Tennessee Motor Speedway site in Putnam County. Construction on the facility is set to be complete by 2021.

“Portobello’s decision to locate its new production facility and U.S. headquarters and create more than 200 jobs in Baxter will be transformational for the community,” said Haslam. “In Tennessee, we have created a business-friendly environment that promotes growth in all of our communities across the state and I appreciate Portobello for seeing what great assets Tennessee and Putnam County have to offer. I look forward to seeing this company succeed in our state and with investments like this, Tennessee will lead in the creation of high-quality jobs.”

“I appreciate Brazil-based Portobello for selecting Tennessee as the home of its first U.S. production facility and its new U.S. headquarters,” said Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe. “Tennessee places a major emphasis on foreign direct investment and Brazilian companies have been a great investment partners in Tennessee. There are 13 Brazilian companies currently located in our state, employing approximately 2,000 Tennesseans. I thank Portobello for making this major announcement in Baxter and for creating 220 new high quality, family-wage jobs in Putnam County.”

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