long read on the east nashville scene

from NPR's ann powers:

"East Nashville — it was already a worn out phrase when I came here," said the producer and recording studio owner Andrija Tokic, who moved to the area a decade ago, when he was 21. "To me it would be impossible to say what East Nashville is now. It used to be that I could go to any bar, and I would know everyone there, and everybody knew what everybody else was doing. Now, claims the name "East Nashville" for whatever their niche project is."

To an outsider, Tokic may seem to overexaggerate. East Nashville isn't Brooklyn yet; it's not even Seattle. And Nashville remains known for country music, which has never been hotter, commercially. But East Nashville now is at the peak of the classic creative-class arc: A new generation of music- and other makers has built a lifestyle vibrant enough to be irresistible to outsiders, including wealthy locals and newcomers from other cities, whose presence makes it both more profitable to some, and unsustainable for others. (via)