Concert series coming to Station Street

As promised, Songbirds Guitar Museum will be presenting a free, five-part concert series on Station Street beginning May 13.

Second Saturdays will feature local and regional music, art, culture and food, according to a news release from the Songbirds Foundation. The May 13 show will take place from 2 to 7 p.m. on the street in front of the museum and will feature music from Barefoot Nellie & Company, Mountain Cove Bluegrass and Fletcher Bright and The Dismembered Tennesseans.

The l i neups for the remaining shows have not been finalized.

The Songbirds Foundation was created to provide educational programming for kids through performances, grants and instruments in the classrooms.

Local rapper Brandy Li has an interesting, if tragic, story. Her father is in prison for killing her mother when Li was 6. She bounced around between grandparents for most of her childhood before heading off to the University of Miami, where she studied biology, hoping to one day become a marine biologist.

An uncle introduced her to rap and performing, and after college she lived in Miami, California and New York working on a career in music. She recorded several tracks almost a decade ago for what was to be her debut album, but that got put on hold while she dealt with family issues related to her father’s incarceration.

Severa l weeks a go, she headed back into the studio to record a track called “Don’t G e t M e Started.” On May 2, she will release remixes of her earlier songs “Envy” and “Pain.” The latter deals in very harsh and adult terms with the death of her mother. She recently performed for a Music Wednesday episode. The new songs are available on iTunes.

I was saddened to hear of the closing of 212 Market this week. Since it opened 25 years ago, it has been the go-to restaurant for our family for special occasions like an anniversary or a good dinner out. I’ll never forget interviewing Susan and Sally Moses and their mother, Maggie, before their opening. Unless you were here then, it’s hard to imagine how bold the idea of not just opening, but building, an upscale restaurant in Chattanooga was at that time, especially on Market Street on the way out of town.

The Tennessee Aquarium was under construction, and I asked how much it played into their decision to open.

“None. We didn’t think about it,” they said.

That’s how confident, and right, they were in what they had planned.

Barry Courter