by Becca Risley | Sep 23, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Up-and-coming country singer Abbi Scott said she dreams of sold-out arenas, personalized tours and selling millions of records. “I don’t want to be a small-time singer who just does it for fun,” Scott said. “I want to be Garth Brooks big. It’s not for the money, I just want to live out my passion and bring back the soul of country.” Scott first realized this was her dream around age 5, while standing in her living room during American Idol commercials and singing into a hairbrush for her parents to “judge” her. At age 8, Scott performed live in public for the first time at a county fair in her home state of Indiana. She won the contest that year and for the next six years. It wasn’t until Scott performed at the Colgate Country Showdown in 2009 that she met several people with singer/songwriter contacts in Nashville. At age 14, Scott and her family traveled to Music City for the first time. “After that, I traveled back and forth between Nashville and Indiana two weekends a month all through high school,” Scott said. “Sometimes the trip would be for writing and sometimes I would come for gigs.” Now a sophomore on campus at Lipscomb, Scott studies Public Relations and works with publicist Katherine Cook to perform as many times and at as many venues as possible. “I went to college because I thought it would be the wise decision while I’m waiting to get my break,” Scott said. “Performing is what I love to do. It’s my passion and it’s what I want to do for the rest of my...
by Charlie Bateman | Sep 23, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
Tokens — Nashville’s “Best Local Variety Show” — began its new season at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Collins Auditorium, with performances by All Sons & Daughters, Sandra McCracken and The Arcadian Wild. Tokens is a live radio show composed of music, humor and spoken issues of social justice. The event was created in February of 2008 by Bible professor Lee C. Camp. “My wife and I were at a radio variety show at the Ryman,” Camp said. “I loved the show so much I was wondering, since I teach theology, if we could create a theological variety show.” All Sons & Daughters consists of two worship leaders, Leslie Jordan and David Leonard, from Journey Church in Franklin. The band has three EP’s on iTunes, including two full-length acoustic albums Season One and Live. Sandra McCracken is a singer, songwriter and producer from Nashville with more than eight albums, with her next, Psalms, to be released later this year. The Arcadian Wild consists of current and former Lipscomb students Sarah Wood, Everett Davis, Isaac Horn and Lincoln Mick. The band’s first EP was released earlier this year and is titled “The Colorado EP.” Included among these musical guests were skits and speeches put together by Brother Preacher and alumni Blake Farmer of WPLN, National Public Radio. The theme of the evening was “Reason to Sing.” “All Sons & Daughters has an opening line in one of their songs that is about needing a reason to sing,” Camp said. “That is so much of what this show is about.” The next live performance of Tokens is Oct. 4 at the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall with a special appearance from The Nashville Choir. The sixth annual Tokens Thanksgiving show is...
by Anna McClure | Sep 21, 2015 | News Slider
Lipscomb began its 125th academic year with a series of record-breaking numbers. University enrollment is at an all-time high with an enrollment of 4,686 students, marking an 86 percent growth in overall enrollment over the last decade. “Students get here and they feel like they’re at home, and they feel like they fit here,” said Brian Mast, senior director for student success. “They just feel like this is the place they want to be for the next four years.” Lipscomb is home for over 1,540 students living on campus this year. The first-year retention rate was 83.5 percent, according to the university website, and the number of incoming freshmen was 669. The rate of incoming freshmen has increased 7.4 percent in the past three years, and this year has also set a record for first through third year retention rates according to Mast. “It takes the whole campus working towards successful retention of students,” Mast said. “It’s a campus-wide effort, and I think our faculty and staff do a tremendous job with that.” In addition to Lipscomb’s growing numbers, physical changes have taken place as well with renovations made to the Swang Business Center and High Rise dormitory over the summer and additions currently being made to the McFarland Science Center. Photo by Erin...
by Brianna Langley | Sep 19, 2015 | News Slider
After generating an idea almost 40 years ago, Dr. Jerry Gaw of the Lipscomb Department of History, Politics and Philosophy prepares for the completion of a laborious literary project. His coming book focuses on how David Lloyd George’s Church of Christ background influenced his politics while he served as Prime Minister of Great Britain during the First World War. “I first learned that Prime Minister David Lloyd George was a member of the Church of Christ in 1979 when I was in graduate school,” Gaw said. “I did not get to start research in Britain until 1994 because that’s when I received a grant to do so.” Since that initial 1994 grant, Gaw has only been able to travel overseas for research three other times. After years of compiling and writing, he hopes to be able to send his first draft in for publishing no later than March of 2016. From then, Gaw said it should only take a little over a year before the final product is out on the market. “I have published a book about Joseph Lister and antisepsis, which was my dissertation subject. The final book I wrote came out in 1999 though,” Gaw said. “Everybody ‘ought to have at least one book in each millennium I think.” Gaw’s working title for his unedited 500-page piece is David Lloyd George and the Politics of Religious Convictions. The book will revolve around Lloyd George’s writings and policies that allude to his upbringing in the Church of Christ and his various social and economic convictions that seem to be results of his religious affiliation. “When I first started doing research in 1994,...
by Becca Risley | Sep 18, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
A mix of vomit, cross-dressing, football, rap and much more bring all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays to life as the Lipscomb Theatre Department puts on The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged). “That’s just act one,” director Nat McIntyre said. “By enjoying the insane ridiculousness of this show, I think it honors Shakespeare much more than many straight-up Shakespeare productions.” The show follows five actors who weave their way through all of Shakespeare’s comedies, histories and tragedies in 97 minutes. The actors work together as narrators and characters to tell each Shakespearean story. Featured in the show are freshman theatre majors Jacob Friend and Anna Elizabeth Micksch, junior theatre majors Ann-Marie Bagge and Nelson Tilley and senior acting major Andrew Johnson. McIntyre has worked with the actors to connect the words of the show to the students on campus. “Some of the jokes have been updated just for the university,” Johnson said. “We’ve been updating the show to help it feel more topical.” Compleat Wrks was London’s longest-running comedy and spent nine years headlining at London’s West End. The show has since been performed several times in the United States and is a first for Lipscomb. “It’s a really good show for Lipscomb because it’s different than what we normally do,” Johnson said. “It’s extremely light-hearted and up-to-date. It’ll make people laugh for sure.” The play will be performed Sept. 18-20 and 25-27 at 7:30 p.m. in Flatt Amphitheater. Tickets for The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged) can be purchased either in the box office on campus, online, or at the door. Cost is $17 for individuals, $12 for faculty and staff and $5 for...
by Sarah Smith | Sep 17, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
On the first Saturday of every month, galleries around Nashville are abuzz for the Art Crawl — one of them being Lipscomb’s own OPEN gallery, located in the Arcade off of Fifth Avenue. Students from Lipscomb’s Visual Arts Department have managed the gallery for the past three years. Junior studio art major Cori McGuirk is the head curator of the gallery this year. Her job involves researching and contacting artists about showing their work in the gallery. “I think they [the department] just wanted the students to be able to have a chance outside of their schoolwork here to connect with other artists,” McGuirk said in explaining the purpose of the gallery. She said that with the gallery, the students will “kind of get a feel for what it’s like to be an artist, and create work.” With free range of choosing the featured artist, McGuirk and other students have the opportunity to connect with other artists. “They [the artists] can be from anywhere, be any age, have any medium,” McGuirk said. “It’s really nice to have that freedom.” McGuirk primarily focuses on showing artists that are in her age group, often from nearby art schools such as Watkins School of Design or Belmont University. “It can be discouraging wanting to be an artist at this age,” McGuirk said. “It’s cool to find these younger artists who I can relate with more, and I feel like they’re doing all these really cool things and I feel like I can do it, too.” Along with local and national artists, OPEN annually features work by senior art majors at Lipscomb, as well as the...
