Nashville's Latest Buzz

06/01/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Bruce Haring

(6/1/98) - Nashville is buzzing these days, and it isn't because of some hat-act's hot new single. It's the arrival of 13-year cicadas: large, red-eyed insects that hatch from the ground every 13 years by the millions.

The bugs have been a literal plague on Music City since they first appeared two weeks ago, in part because of their persuasiveness. The winged pests harass pedestrians, causing more than one Nashville publicist to rethink their outdoor Number One party plans; the cicadas' almost deafening buzzing has also caused some reshuffling of studio plans, as well.

Rock band the Furies, all residents of Boulder, Colorado, are in Nashville recording their first release for Sparrow Records. The cicadas have been so loud outside the studio that the band can only record their vocals at night, when the bugs are asleep. Album producer Monroe Jones recorded the noise and plans to include it on the record, which comes out in October.

Meanwhile, musician Bill Kelley missed a Nashville gig when AirCanada canceled its Toronto-Nashville flight. The cancellation happened when the Canadian flight crew, alarmed at the cicada infestation in the cargo and passenger areas of a just-in-from-Nashville plane, refused to handle the flight.

Not everyone is so alarmed, however. A Nashville club is holding a "Cicada Fest" next week, with headliners the Cicadas (a band fronted by Rodney Crowell) and the Crickets.

The cicadas are due to head back underground in about four weeks.