Projects

A native of Nashville, Jon Sewell graduated from University of Memphis in 2004 with bachelor's degrees each in Philosophy, Political Science, and Foreign Languages. Returning to Nashville, he obtained his master's degree from Vanderbilt University in 2006. After a roughly decade and a half period in skilled trades, he returned to graduate school in 2022, and now in process to receive his Ph.D. in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University, he currently serves as a Graduate Assistant at the Center for Popular Music, while working on his own community-founded Nashville Underground Music Archive. His professional residency at Jefferson Street Sound Museum runs through 2026.

Nashville Underground Music Archive

An online database began in 2020 as "a place to share and save memories of the people, places, and performances that show the under side of Music City, USA. As time marches on, much of what helped make the musical communities in this town have gone away too soon, or for some, not soon enough- here is the story."

Today the project has grown to include hundreds of hours of oral history, thousands of pieces of vinyl, clothing, fliers, papers, 'zines, newspapers, programs, and ephemera. With a database of hundreds of pages for performers, venues, events, and record labels, NUMA represents the largest accrued output of active research into musical communities from early rock & roll, gospel, and R&B in 1950s Nashville to punk, metal, and hip-hop scenes of the 1980s and '90s.

Visit the website: TheNashvilleUnderground.org

The Packing Plant

A commercial building that provides space for galleries, non-profits, and studio space.

Started in 2012, construction on the adaptive re-use of an old meat packing facility in South Nashville continued until 2019 when the last unit welcomed WXNA, a community-founded free-form radio station. As the Friends & Family of WRVU, the "X" continued a tradition of locally focused broadcasting. Their neighbors upstairs include an educator's advocacy non-profit, Educator's Cooperative, and the Free Nashville Poetry Library.

Downstairs, art galleries vary in all types. Non-commercial project spaces complement student-run spaces from two local universities: Watkins College of Art & Design (now at Belmont) and Lipscomb's art department. Nashville's longest-running curatorial collective, Coop, operates the large gallery subletting space to an active risograph print studio.

Visit the website: ThePackingPlant.com

South Nashville Historical Markers

As one of the many public-facing physical commemorations of history, historical markers offer an opportunity to connect significant events and spaces with a place in the world.

Building on research in the neighborhoods of South Nashville, in particular Cameron-Trimble (now called Chestnut Hill), these proposals pursue recognition for the first State Fairgrounds, located along Brown's Creek, as well as celebration of the old Gem Theatre on 1st Avenue. A sister enterprise to the Ritz Theatre in North Nashville and related through ownership to the old Bijou Theatre downtown, the Gem provided decades of entertainment to African-American families in South Nashville.

This partnership involves the office of CouncilMember Terry Vo (District 17), TAG (Trimble Action Group- the neighborhood association for Chestnut Hill), and coordination with the offices of Rep. Harold Love (District 58), and Sen Charlane Oliver (District 19).

Please reach out for status and specific proposal details.

Longview: Heritage Development Plan

In August 2024, Lipscomb University faculty and staff asked Dr. Carroll Van West to visit Longview, a historic house that the university owns, and to share his ideas on how the university could maximize this invaluable heritage asset for its students, supporters, and the larger Nashville community. West is the Tennessee State Historian, the Director of the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area, and the Director of the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation. For the meeting Dr. West also invited staff from the Metro Nashville Historical Commission to join the meeting and examination of the property. Everyone who attended that summer meeting came away with an appreciation of the wealth of opportunity Lipscomb University has at 811 Caldwell Lane. Longview is a stunning Beaux Arts styled historic house with multiple possibilities for future use. This report, prepared by three MTSU public history graduate students, Jacob Jernigan, Nancy Prescott, Jon Sewell, and Dr. West, presents (1) a brief history of the property and the house; (2) preservation concerns; and. (3) alternative options for consideration.

Visit the Center for Historic Preservation website for the full report.

South Nashville Neighborhood Studies

Wedgewood-Houston: From farmland to Civil War fort and the arrival of the railroad, uses have shaped industrial and post-industrial development, with a thriving arts community and active neighborhood group.

Chestnut Hill: Formerly Cameron-Trimble, this area carries a unique history with notable residents such as John Trimble and Henry Cameron. From the floodway in Trimble Bottom to the City Cemetery, the area's history resonates today in design and function.

As a Community Member for two studies, providing local micro-histories of these areas informed use potential and appropriate development policies from:

Metro Planning- Wedgewood-Houston/Chestnut Hill Study Plan (2019-2020)
Auburn Urban Design project for Wedgewood-Houston (2020)

Visit the Metro Planning Department project website for the resulting Wedgewood-Houston/ Chestnut Hill Planning Study.

Digital Mapping:

Nashville Music contexts

Using free software, these maps provide a regional and local context to music production in Nashville.

"The Cultural Geography of Nashville" overlays three distinct definitions of musical areas in the American South as defined by music historians and sociologists Richard Peterson (The Fertile Crescent of Country Music), James L. Dickinson (the Mojo Triangle), and Charles Hughes (the Country-Soul triangle).

"Will Play for Dancing" is a work in progress to lay out the various local venues in Nashville, where live music performances animated and excited audiences.

Southern Underground Music Archive Consortium

As a product of research and numerous presentations into music archives in the American South preserving local music history, this formalization of an informal mutual aid resource-sharing knowledge network. Roundtable panels at academic conferences have included the Louisville Underground Music Archive, the Southern Punk Archive, the 309 Punk Project, the Delaware Music History Archive, the Atlanta Hip-Hop Archive, Punk House Atlanta, and the Southern Music Research Center.

Digital mapping, shown here, incorporates community archives, academic repositories, models as precedent for practice and approach, as well as potential members of a future consortium. Conversations with the Regional Archival Associations Consortium (RAAC) of the SAA have helped established a pathway for founding, with the opportunity of future grant guidance for its eventual establishment.

Visit the map at right and the Presentations page for a list of rountables and panels.

Muse Sick City

This exhibition series serves as a public-facing presentation of history, material, and people represented in the Nashville Underground Music Archive. The first installment in August 2026 at The Arcade in downtown Nashville included fliers, paste-up sheets for 80s zines, silkscreened posters, a link to digital archives of local music icons, and clay art created by Susie Monick celebrating local venues and musicians.

Visit the Presentations page for a list of past exhibits.

Follow the Nashville Underground Music Achive Instagram for updates.

Salt Weekly

An irreverent print product started in 2018, Salt Weekly started as a bi-monthly before moving into irregular yet occasional publication schedules. Starting with issue 52 and counting down, the project aims to celebrate independent print culture in Nashville by continuing the tradition. Providing space for literary arts (poetry, short stories), visual art (collage, illustration, paintings, comics, and doodles), and political essays, the satirical tone aims to challenge local commercial press while remaining playful yet critical.

A collection of back issues was acquired by Vanderbilt Special Collections in 2024 as a sample of local underground press. Tennessee State Library and Archives plans to acquire a collection in 2026.

Visit the website here: SaltWeekly.com

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse