{"id":12794,"date":"2020-04-16T15:31:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T20:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.wnpt.org\/mediaupdate\/?page_id=12794"},"modified":"2020-09-21T14:25:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T19:25:58","slug":"npts-music-city-usa-premieres-april-27","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.wnpt.org\/mediaupdate\/press-room\/npts-music-city-usa-premieres-april-27\/","title":{"rendered":"NPT\u2019s \u2018Music City USA\u2019  premieres April 27"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"font-size:16px; padding-top:1em;\"><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 16, 2020<\/strong><br>Contact: MiChelle Jones, NPT, (615) 259-9325 x2110, <a href=\"mailto: mjones@wnpt.org\">mjones@wnpt.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>NASHVILLE, Tennessee <\/strong>\u2013 <strong>Music City, USA,<\/strong> the 13th documentary in NPT\u2019s award-winning Next Door Neighbors series, premieres Monday, April 27, at 8 p.m. This edition of Next Door Neighbors traces the musical voyages of four people, each a first- or second-generation immigrant, who came to Nashville to pursue careers in music. They came from South America and Ivory Coast \u2013 Michigan and Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Music City, USA<\/strong> will also air Thursday, April 29, at 8 a.m. and Saturday, April 30, at 1 p.m. on NPT2, and will be available for online viewing at <a href=\"http:\/\/video.wnpt.org\/show\/next-door-neighbors\">video.wnpt.org\/show\/next-door-neighbors<\/a>. The April 27 premiere will be followed by an encore presentation of <strong>NPT Reports: Whose Music?,<\/strong> a panel discussion about the relevance of music genres and cultural appropriation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">NPT\u2019s<strong> Music City, USA<\/strong> opens with shots of Broadway\u2019s colorful neon signs of clubs and venues glowing against pitch-black sky, the street and sidewalks teeming with people. Stopping at the iconic Robert\u2019s Western World, the documentary tells the story of its proprietor Jesse Lee Jones. A native of Brazil, Jones came to the U.S. virtually penniless, guitar in hand. He learned English partly by watching <strong>Sesame Street<\/strong> with the children of the Illinois family who took him in. He also established himself as a hard-working musician, eventually attracting local media attention. Given his affinity for country music, coming to Nashville was an obvious step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI began visiting some of these thrift stores, and getting myself old suits, and the old Western ties,\u201d Jones says in <strong>Music City, USA.<\/strong> \u201cIt was like I was always meant to be there, and I had finally found myself.\u201d But he wasn\u2019t your average country boy, as noted by Robert\u2019s legendary house band, BR-549, who started referring to him as a Brazilian hillbilly. The name stuck and Jones\u2019 band became Brazilbilly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">As it happens, Jones and Robert\u2019s played a role in the career of another <strong>Music City, USA\u2019s<\/strong> subject. Rachel Rodriguez was in town with her father and heard a set at Robert\u2019s that included Brazilbilly. That was the pivotal evening when she decided to move to Nashville, she recalls in the documentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt never dawned on me that there were no women of color, or really anybody of color at that time, on mainstream country radio,\u201d she says in the documentary. \u201cI did not look like your typical country artist. People, unfortunately, listen with their eyes, sometimes. So I really had to put myself together and figure out, OK, now what am I going to do?\u201d She now flavors her beloved country music with elements of rock, soul and Tejano music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Giovanni Rodriguez (no relation), a Dominican-American musician who grew up in Italy and Huntsville, also makes Latin-influenced music. Giovanni \u2013 who was recently featured in a Nashville Scene cover story about Latin musicians \u2013 prefers a multicultural take on salsa. \u201cI try to bring in as many different people as possible, whether they be from Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Columbia, even other Americans,\u201d he says in <strong>Music City, USA.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Rounding out the documentary is the story of Peter One, a musician from Ivory Coast. One was part of a duo that played stadium-size venues throughout West Africa in the 1980s. He left his home when political conditions deteriorated and then put his music career on hold while trying to make a living in the U.S. Though One\u2019s story comes last in <strong>Music City, USA,<\/strong> he was the first of the documentary\u2019s artists to catch the attention of producer Shawn Anfinson, via a feature on WPLN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere was this guy who\u2019d had a hit record in West Africa back in the 1980s, and it was chock full of country-western influences.\u201d Anfinson said. \u201cI wondered if there were more stories like his.\u201d NPT was airing Ken Burns\u2019 <strong>Country Music<\/strong> series when it came time for a new Next Door Neighbors documentary, so when Anfinson met Jesse Lee Jones and then randomly encountered Rachel Rodriguez, the theme was set.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">As for Peter One, he\u2019s working with Nashville musicians to create a record that reflects his African roots and his American aspirations. \u201cYou never know what\u2019s going to happen, so live your life,\u201d One says in <strong>Music City, USA.<\/strong> \u201cLive your life the best way you can where you are. Nashville is the right place for me\u2026 and I\u2019m really grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">NPT\u2019s <strong>Next Door Neighbors: Music City, USA<\/strong> is made possible by the generous support of The Nissan Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">NPT\u2019s Next Door Neighbors series looks at Nashville\u2019s status as a destination city for refugees and immigrants and explores the rich diversity of people now calling Nashville home. Through documentaries, extensive outreach and continued relationships with Nashville\u2019s immigrant and refugee communities, the Next Door Neighbors project aims to increase understanding of unfamiliar cultures, highlight the experiences and successes of Nashville\u2019s immigrants, and mediate a community-wide conversation about who we are as Nashvillians. Anfinson\u2019s most recent documentary in the series was the Emmy-nominated <strong>Taste of Home<\/strong>, about the culinary traditions of Middle Tennessee\u2019s Ethiopian, Palestinian and Venezuelan communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-normal-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/sh\/ssk90v244qgwgoi\/AABBYXw4LqF3v4ZO9VyxABkTa?dl=0\">Download Press Images via DropBox<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>About Nashville Public Television: <\/strong><br>Nashville Public Television, Nashville\u2019s PBS station, is available free and over-the-air to nearly 2.4 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky viewing area. NPT\u2019s three broadcast channels are NPT, the main channel; secondary channel NPT2; and NPT3, a 24\/7 PBS Kids channel. NPT is also available to anyone in the world through its array of NPT digital services, including <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/wnpt.org\/\">wnpt.org<\/a>, YouTube channels and the PBS video app. NPT provides, through the power of traditional television and interactive digital communications, quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve. Join the conversation at <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/nashvillepublictelevision\">facebook.com\/nashvillepublictelevision<\/a>, on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/npt8\">@npt8<\/a> and on Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/nashvillepubtv\/\">@nashvillepubtv<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">####<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 16, 2020Contact: MiChelle Jones, NPT, (615) 259-9325 x2110, mjones@wnpt.org NASHVILLE, Tennessee \u2013 Music City, USA, the 13th documentary in NPT\u2019s award-winning Next Door Neighbors&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"parent":12698,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-12794","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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