Even someone who grew up singing, immersed in song within family and church, could be forgiven for suffering butterflies when stepping out onto a nationally televised stage.
Tuscaloosa native Emma Caroline Warren had to remind herself to take deep breaths before singing in front of Blake Shelton, John Legend, Nick Jonas and Kelly Clarkson, but as shown on last Monday’s “The Voice,” on NBC, the singer, going now by simply Emma Caroline, didn’t let trepidation show.
“It’s hard to prepare yourself to be on that big a stage, in front of those celebrity coaches,” she said in a phone interview from Nashville, where she’s been living and working for about four years, having graduating from Tuscaloosa Academy in 2013, then attending the University of Alabama. “I don’t know that there’s a way to prepare yourself for that.
As of this weekend, there’s not a single concert listed for the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater in 2021, seemingly a dark mirror to 2020, in which the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the entire season.
That will change Monday with the first announcement, a show slated for June 17, which in addition to being the first named concert, will likely remain the first to happen.
“I think we’re just starting a little bit later, but we’re going to make up for it,” said Stacy Vaughn, director of public services for the city of Tuscaloosa.
“There’s a ton of stuff on hold,” she said, waiting on, among other things:
Don’t call it a comeback; they’ve been here 50 years: The Kentuck Festival of the Arts will be back live for 2021.
Among the many celebrations, events and adventures swept away by the pandemic calamity of 2020, cancellation of last October s festival dimmed one of the most vibrant, beloved traditions in west Alabama.
“The festival to me is like a revival,” said Amy Echols, Kentuck’s executive director, “because I get such a nurturing and empowering feeling….It’s energizing to be around all that creativity, and to be around all those artists.”
An amalgam of traditional, visionary and contemporary art, craft, music and other creative endeavors, the Kentuck Festival is a have-to-be-lived-in crazy quilt, wound with fiber, steel, wood, canvas and color, bound by customs, contraptions and folklore, and underpinned by widespread roots grasping the inventive, innovative, wild and weird at heart since its origins in a 1971 downtown Northport street fair.
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Here s a look at some recent restaurant openings and closings in Tuscaloosa:
Ruan Thai: Ruan Thai, a restaurant spun off from the earlier Siam House, which was for many Tuscaloosans their first taste of Thai cuisine, closed Feb. 20. Siam House, in a different location, opened in 1991, but closed in 2002. Owner Alp Yeager moved to the location, at 1407 University Blvd. in 2006, re-opening as Ruan Thai (which means Thai house). No public reason was given for the closing.
Hooligan s: Hooligan s moved from its original 1998 location on University Blvd to 515 15th St., a building formerly housing Pizza Hut, next to Checker s, the week of Feb. 22. According to owners, the new location adds interior space, more parking, and a drive-through window. The Mediterranean-American amalgam also has a location north of the river, at 1351 McFarland Blvd NE, in Tuscaloosa. www.sharethehummus.com.