Wes Swing unveils his new album, And The Heart, at the Southern on Friday. Publicity photo.
The second album from chamber pop cellist Wes Swing traces its origin to California, Texas and Washington, D.C. While composing in San Francisco, Swing struggled to overcome a wrist injury, before reconnecting with producer Paul Curreri (living in Austin at the time) who was facing his own physical challenge. Once collaboration on the new pieces began, says Swing, “I moved back from SF, Paul and Devon [Sproule] from Austin, and both Paul and I pushed through musical injuries and brought more vulnerable parts of ourselves to the music.” Described as deliberately sparse with stark instrumentation, And The Heart uses restraint and delicate vocals to pull you in for a closer listen. Curreri and Sproule perform as part of the album release celebration.
Friday, June 2. $12-14, 8pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
What’s better than an evening of gorgeous folk favorites from a legendary
musical voice? Four Voices performs at the Pavilion on Tuesday. Publicity photo.
Any one of the legends on the Four Voices tour would be reason enough to lay out your picnic blanket on the Pavilion lawn. But packaged together, Joan Baez, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Indigo Girls’ Amy Ray and Emily Saliers form a folk supergroup made to crush your feminist mother’s bucket list. Although it’s their first outing as a group, the vocal heroines began performing together in 1991, bonding through a friendship forged by talent and a dedication to humanitarian causes.
Tuesday, June 6. $38-78, 7pm. Sprint Pavilion, 700 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 877-CPAV-TIX.
Indian stand-up comedian and writer Krish Mohan avoids the easy jokes, choosing instead to build funny stories by forcing the audience into his shoes. His 2016 album, How Not To Fit In, runs through a list of awkward topics such as a dolphin with six arms, the lack of originality in racism and interpreting American culture through episodes of “Baywatch.” With perfect timing, Mohan delivers rants on religion, immigration, relationships, politics and social issues.
Sunday, June 4. $7-10, 8pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Alternative rock band New Boss’ new album, Third Sister, is not about siblings but it does speak to the familial bond that band members Nick Rubin, Jordan Perry, Thomas Dean,
Scott Ritchie, Devon Sproule and Parker Smith share. They celebrate the record on Saturday at the Southern. Publicity photo.
What’s in a name? For local alternative rock band New Boss, a name contains momentum for a song.
Most New Boss songs begin with lead guitarist Thomas Dean, who will write a guitar riff that reminds him, usually, of another song or a certain sound. He’ll create a demo around the riff and share it with the rest of the band—guitarist and vocalist Jordan Perry, bassist Scott Ritchie, keyboardist and vocalist (and C-VILLE Tunes columnist) Nick Rubin, drummer Parker Smith and vocalist Devon Sproule—to flesh it out into a fully embodied tune.
New Boss with Illiterate Light and BEN FM
Record release show at The Southern Café and Music Hall
June 3
Perry says that New Boss takes a free-associative approach to writing, both lyrically and musically, where band members (usually Dean) will give a demo a working title and develop the content based on whatever comes to mind when they think of that title.
When Perry writes, he says he chooses lyrics based on their sonic quality—words that feel good and interesting to sing—and tries to let content arise rather than choose a topic from the get-go. “The sonic aspect feels like the priority, and then comes out, whatever is going on consciously or unconsciously in one’s brain, as far as content,” he says. Power structures and power dynamics—both the highly observable, in-your-face and on-the-news kind and the kind that exists within the self and is more difficult to perceive—is what materialized on many of the tracks on the band’s third full-length record, Third Sister, and to an extent, on the band’s 2016 effort, Home Problems (see “Jeeps” and “The Hill” for evidence).
Sometimes the musical association is obvious—the original sample for “Jeeps” was the beat off of T. Rex’s “Jeepster”—other times it’s subtle, like with “Mirror Mirror,” which Dean says is the band’s attempt at ripping off Brian Eno’s “Seven Deadly Finns,” which itself is a rip-off of any classic pop rock song (don’t miss Rubin’s Roxy Music-esque synthesizer explosion on this one).
Other times, a song travels so far from its original inspiration that the two are tethered by a single word in the title. “Wildlife” was a title that Dean nabbed from David Bowie’s “Teenage Wildlife,” off of Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), and wrote some music that felt like teenage wildlife to him. When Sproule got ahold of the demo, she was pregnant and reading The Mists of Avalon, and her ruminations on both turned the song into what she says is a sort of “pagan party tune.”
“A lot of people try to hide their influences, or pretend like they’re just pulling their songs and their music out of total nowhere, when it’s obvious, for most of us, that we come from somewhere,” says Sproule, but with New Boss, “it’s refreshing that some of the titles of the songs, or maybe some of the content, is referencing some sound or some band or some era of music—I love it.”
For all the borrowing, lifting, shifting and glancing-towards that New Boss does, there’s plenty of originality and excellent musicianship on Third Sister, and not just in how the group manipulates the sounds and words of its influences. For instance, notice how Ritchie’s bass playing is aligned musically with both Dean’s lead guitar and Smith’s drums while also doing something totally musically distinct—that’s not an easy thing to do.
Third Sister is New Boss’ most dynamic record yet, in style and personnel. The band has changed members over the years, and New Boss isn’t afraid to swap lead singers—Sproule, Perry and Rubin share the duties on this record—or collaborate with other musicians. Perry wrote “Back to the Beach,” a meditation on “alllll the shit that goes on underneath the water that you can’t see, and how it still resonates in this weird way,” with Charlottesville ex-pat and Borrowed Beams of Light frontman Adam Brock; Sproule worked on vocal melodies with her husband, musician and producer Paul Curreri.
“It’s felt, for me, like a new reality of what a band can be,” says Sproule.
Ritchie likens the band to a tree, where New Boss the band is the trunk, and then each song is its own individual branch of sound, influence and meaning; most of the band members have solo projects and play in other bands, and that music, too, becomes branches darting forth from the New Boss trunk.
They have two more releases in the works —a WarHen Records LP of a show recorded live at the Southern last December, and a six-song EP due out in the next year. Those six songs “really are special,” says Perry. “They hit another level, a new level. You never achieve the apex,” he says, but that forthcoming EP brings the band closer to it.
After that, the future of New Boss is up in the air. Perry is leaving the band to focus on his solo music, and while Dean says they’re not sure they’ll continue New Boss without Perry, they’re nothing if not open to what comes next. After all, free association is at the essence of the band. “We’re a completely different-feeling band now than we were” even an album ago, Dean says, and while Third Sister represents “a completely different moment” for the band, “it still sounds like us.” It’s there in the name.
Paul Hostetler’s “Player Piano (or, Finger Typewriter)” is among the artist’s clever illustrations, drawings, paintings and cartoons on display at the McGuffey Art Center this month. Courtesy of Paul Hostetler.
“My artwork smells very appealing, if you like Indian food,” says Charlottesville illustrator Paul Hostetler, whose work will be on display this month in the McGuffey Art Center Lower Hall Gallery.
“And I hope that previous sentence makes people lean up and smell my art during the show. Then lean back and think about how that wasn’t very sensible, then about how almost everything in modern society isn’t very sensible, beyond our constant struggle to make it make sense,” he says. “Then I hope they quickly squash those feelings so they can properly enjoy the other pieces. Then I hope they buy something.”
Hostetler, whose work you’ve seen on that dinosaur-covered CAT bus around town, is showing “a mélange” of cartoons, finished illustrations, unfinished drawings and what he calls “trite paintings.” He is one of six artists participating in McGuffey’s Incubator Studio, a program that allows nonmembers to practice under the tutelage of McGuffey member artists.
Hostetler’s partial to the piece titled “Player Piano (or, Finger Typewriter),” where swiftly typing fingers take the place of typewriter keys, and a wild tongue and half a set of teeth sit where the key hammers and ribbon would be. With its bonkers imagery and bright, dissonant color scheme, it’s wily and thought-provoking, and Hostetler says he “spent an awful lot of time and effort on [it], despite the piece being about how much easier art would be if it could make itself.” —Erin O’Hare
BozART Fine Art Collective 129 E. Main St., Orange.A mixed-media show explores different interpretations of an “orange” theme, from literal oranges to views of the town. Opens June 8, 5pm.
FF The Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative 209 Monticello Rd.“Carry Me Ohio,” a glimpse through photographs into the lives of forgotten blue-collar workers of rural Ohio. 5:30pm.
FF Central Library 201 E. Market St. “Charlottesville Then & Now,” a photography exhibit that chronicles the town. 5-7pm.
Ellen Climo at Chroma Projects Gallery.
FFChroma Projects Gallery 112 W. Main St., Ste. 10. “Sounding Things,” Ellen Climo’s series of square photographs looking to impose precision on unkempt landscapes. 5-7pm.
FF CitySpace Art Gallery 100 Fifth St. NE, Market Street Garage. “#BlackOwnedCville,” an exhibit celebrating local African-American business owners, featuring a film by Lorenzo Dickerson. 5:30-7:30pm.
Crozet Artisan Depot 5791 Three Notch’d Rd., Crozet. “Adventure Art,” a celebration of the outdoors painted on trail maps by Kathryn Matthews. Opens June 10, 3-5pm.
FFC’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery 118 E. Main St. “Capturing the Soul with Plein Air,” featuring the outdoor paintings of Meg West. 6-8pm.
Lois Kennensohn at Fellini’s #9.
FF Fellini’s#9 200 Market St. “Historic Downtown Mall,” watercolors by Lois Kennensohn. 5:30-7pm.
FF The Garage 100 E. Jefferson St. “Curious/ColorRoom,” a sculptural, mixed- media installation by Christy Baker. 5-7pm.
FF Graves International Art 306 E. Jefferson St. “Roy Lichtenstein & Company: Postwar and Contemporary Art,” featuring handmade limited-edition prints and exhibition posters by artists such as Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, David Hockney, Keith Haring, Ellsworth Kelly, Josef Albers and others. 5-8pm.
FF Kardinal Hall 722 Preston Ave. “An Autobiographical Anthology,” an exhibition of gouache and intaglio prints on paper.6-8pm.
FF McGuffey Art Center 201 Second St. NW. In the Sarah B. Smith Gallery, “Pattern: Recent Linocuts,” linocuts by Maryanna Williams, talk on June 6, 12:30pm; in Lower Hall North and South, “Cracked: The Incubator Show,” featuring six artists who participated in McGuffey’s Incubator Studio; in Upper Hall North and South,“World Art Exhibit,” a collection of drawings by refugees from eight countries.
FF Music Resource Center LeRoi Moore Performance Hall, 105 Ridge St. “Through These Waters,” an exhibition of photographs and video by Tori Purcell that explores the ways in which people remember their ancestors. 5-7pm, with a video screening at 5:30.
FF New Dominion Bookshop 404 E. Main St. “Portraits of Ordinary Architecture.” Photographs by Gary Okerlund. 5-7pm.
FF Piedmont Council for the Arts Gallery 112 W. Main St., Ste. 9. “Urban Treasures,” a photography exhibition by Bill Moretz. 5-7pm.
Shenandoah Valley Fine Art Center 26 S. Wayne Ave., Waynesboro. “Local Landmarks and Landscapes,” an exhibition featuring depictions of the greater Waynesboro area.
FF Spring Street Boutique 107 W. Main St. “A Scape in Transcendence,” mixed media by Alee Johnson. 6-8pm.
Martyn Kyle at Studio IX.
FF Studio IX 969 Second St. SE. “Polaroids,” featuring Polaroid photography by Martyn Kyle. 5-7pm.
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church 717 Rugby Rd. Mixed-media paintings by Sarah Gondwe. Opens June 4, 11:30am.
FFTop Knot Studio 103 Fifth St. SE. “Integration Series,” a mixed-media portrayal of adjustment to a life-changing injury through creativity. 5:30-7pm.
FF VMDO Architects 200 E. Market St. Local landscapes by John Trevor; sculptures by Philip Miller, inspired by George Nakashima. 5:30pm.
FF Welcome Gallery at New City Arts114 Third St. NE. “Housing2Home,” a multimedia exhibit featuring photographs of client spaces taken by Andrea Hubbell; a film by Zaynah and Forrest Pando; and photography, paintings, pottery and textiles by more than a dozen other local artists. 5-7:30pm.
FF First Fridays is a monthly art event featuring exhibit openings at many downtown art galleries and additional exhibition venues. Several spaces offer receptions.
Five local bars, including Tavola, which will offer four versions of a Negroni, are participating in Negroni Week from June 5-11. A portion of proceeds from each Negroni sold at participating bars goes to charity. Staff photo.
Ordering a classic aperitivo Italian cocktail will give you a new buzz starting June 5: a chance to donate to charity. Negroni Week, a fundraising event from June 5-11 revolving around the bright, bitter citrus drink, has Charlottesville bars signing up to give a portion of their sales of the drink to a partner charity of their choosing.
Steve Yang, Tavola’s bar manager, plans to donate $1 to $2 of each cocktail sold to No Kid Hungry.
“No Kid Hungry is more in line with what our owner likes to do and what we like to do,” Yang says, adding that he wants to raise “as much as possible” for the charity, which works to end childhood hunger in the Commonwealth.
And Yang has conjured up four unique spins on the classic beverage.
“We have our classic Negroni, we have our boulevardier, which traditionally is going to be a bourbon version of a Negroni, but we do one with our own housemade bitter orange instead of Campari, and we use more of an after-dinner dessert-y vermouth,” Yang says.
You can also donate your dollars with drinks at The Alley Light, Brasserie Saison, The Whiskey Jar and Lost Saint, which was the first area bar to participate.
Negroni Week has raised about $900,000 since its founding in 2013, and Charlottesville is stepping up to add to that sum.
-Alexa Nash
Kitchen confidential
The concept for Underground Kitchen was brought to fruition by Richmond’s Micheal Sparks, who merged mystery with community. The Underground Kitchen’s members, called “Foodies,” get on an email list that promotes a themed five- to seven-course meal in an undisclosed location with a local chef who develops a completely unique menu; all of the details are kept secret until the last minute.
Locations are chosen first and then paired with a chef, who is set loose to create a mouthwatering menu.
“They all come with an idea, and we want them to do what they’re passionate about,” Sparks says. “We give them the opportunity to cook outside the box, so we leave that up to the professionals.”
Only 25 to 40 tickets are sold, which covers the meal, wine pairings and gratuity. The process is first come, first serve, and at $125 to $500, tickets go fast.
Sparks focuses on conversation, and encourages guests to get to know their neighbors.
“We’re responsible for two weddings, three engagements and a lot of people dating,” Sparks says, along with countless friendships. “It’s a powerful thing, what happens between food and wine.”
The next dinner will be held June 5 with the theme “From the Cast Iron to the Plate,” which will highlight Virginia’s Colonial-style cooking with a twist. Sign up to get pop-up dinner alerts at theundergroundkitchen.org.
-Alexa Nash
Plan ahead
Food blogger and chef Lynsie Steele has launched Vie, a meal-planning service based around what’s on sale at local grocery stores—Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Kroger and Wegmans—each week and designed to help home cooks save time and money.
Customers can choose from various plans, including annual, three-month or one-month mega or mini plans. Each plan includes recipes and instructions, shopping lists, video demonstrations, online recipe tips and access to Vie team members for specific shopping and cooking questions. Pricing varies—for instance, a one-month mini plan is $19 plus a $1 sign-up fee; an annual mega plan is $399 plus a $1 sign-up fee. Full pricing information is available at getvie.com.
The movie, such as their is one, intends to be an exaggerated version of the original TV series’ more preposterous plots, involving lifeguards taking down a massive crime ring because it happens to be located near their beach. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
The big-screenBaywatch isn’t the worst movie ever made—just the most pointless. There are occasional laughs but it can’t be called funny. The performers are charming and committed, but it’s not exactly well acted. Everyone was hired for a job: They did it, took lunch, got paid and went home satisfied with a solid day’s work and with the knowledge that none of it actually mattered. Nobody needed this movie, least of all the team of talented and attractive people tasked with making it happen, but here we are anyway.
Is it worth your time? Do you like movies that are not sure whether to be self-aware or sincere, raunchy or straight-laced, a genuine tribute to the source material or too-cool-for-school parody? Do you like being able to predict the punchline to every single joke in advance? Do you want to see The Rock charm his way through material that is (yet again) so clearly beneath his talent? If the answer is yes, cool, go see Baywatch, no skin off our back.
The movie, such as there is one, intends to be an exaggerated version of the original TV series’ more preposterous plots, involving lifeguards taking down a massive crime ring because it happens to be located near their beach. The cast—including Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron, Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach—play the leads, who improbably have the same names as the characters in the show yet exist in a universe where David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson also are named Mitch Buchannon and C.J. “Casey Jean” Parker. Mitch is forced to handle his daily Baywatch duties while babysitting newcomer Matt Brody (Efron), a cocky, disgraced Olympic champion who the higher-ups feel would be good for the Baywatch program’s visibility. Meanwhile, drugs have been appearing more frequently on the beach, and always seem to lead back to local club owner Victoria Leeds (Priyanka Chopra). The team consistently oversteps its jurisdiction—they’re a group of lifeguards, not police—and uncover a complicated criminal operation while butting heads with the cop (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who resents their presence.
The biggest problem with this Baywatch update—beyond not being a good idea to begin with—is that we don’t know who it’s for. It seems to be partially inspired by 21 Jump Street and its sequel, which knew that some fans of the original series might be on board, but it was a surprisingly sharp satire that charted its comedic course. Baywatch does seem to want fans of the show to approve, with self-referential gags that won’t make sense to anyone else, but also acts like actually caring about the fans is beneath it. There’s a campy quality to the show, which is why it still exists in the cultural canon long past its expected shelf life. This movie update, however, has no appeal to anyone.
There are a few chase sequences that would feel at home in a dedicated action flick, but they pop up out of nowhere and disappear even more quickly. Some lines will make you chuckle then forget why. Semi- newcomer Jon Bass will charm you, but he’s just the nerdy kid who gets sexually humiliated then arbitrarily rewarded. Baywatch shouldn’t be the movie that tries to do it all at the same time. Pick a thing and stick with it. It’s what the Hoff—not to mention the audience—deserves.
Playing this week
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
The Shops at Stonefield, 244-3213
Alien: Covenant,Beauty and the Beast, The Boss Baby, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Everything, Everything, The Fate of the Furious, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Snatched
Violet Crown Cinema
200 W. Main St., Downtown Mall, 529-3000
A Quiet Passion,Alien: Covenant, Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Feature Documentary, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Everything, Everything,Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, , Kedi, The Lovers, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Snatched, Wonder Woman
Dr. Konstantin Frank learned his craft at ancient wineries in (then) Soviet Georgia before coming to the United States in 1951. Once here, he advocated for the plantings of the Vitis vinifera grape varietals that dominate our current wine business.
Courtesy of Dr. Konstantin Frank Winery.
The Virginia wine scene exists within a larger post-Prohibition wine revival sweeping across the United States. Before Prohibition, the East Coast had a thriving wine trade. But following the 1920 constitutional ban on alchohol, only a few wineries remained standing, such as New York’s Brotherhood Winery (in operation since 1839), which produced sacramental wine to avoid shutting down.
Once the law was repealed in 1933, it took several decades for the East Coast wine industry to bounce back. One New York wine producer, Dr. Konstantin Frank, who established his winery in 1962, helped to shape the new direction.
Frank vociferously extolled a particular grape species—Vitis vinifera—and believed that indigenous and hybrid species produced inferior wines. Vinifera grapes are a European species that originated in the Caucasus region several thousand years ago, and most familiar wines (chardonnay, viognier, cabernet, etc.) are vinifera.
By 1973, a Vinifera Wine Growers Association popped up (now known as the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association) and, along with the findings of Dr. Frank, began to influence East Coast winegrowers and the beginnings of today’s Virginia wine trade, where vintners such as Dennis Horton became intrigued by vinifera grapes.
Virginia’s focus on smaller-scale boutique wineries has helped our wine trails stand out as unique
attractions for agro-tourism. Most Virginia wineries are small family businesses, and you are likely to find one of the owners in the tasting room when you visit.
The U.S.’s post-Prohibition revival has made the grape business more profitable, partly because of the higher prices wine grapes can fetch. A near decade of statistics from 2005 through 2014 show that the country’s total grape production has not changed dramatically: Both at the beginning and end of the decade, the U.S. produced approximately 7.8 million tons of grapes. But the average price per ton increased about 67 percent during that time, and a $3.4 billion industry grew into a $5.8 billion industry.
Zooming in on the East Coast, the major players in order of grape ton production are New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia. Virginia’s biggest market competitor is New York. In 2014, New York crushed 44,000 tons of wine grapes, while Virginia crushed 8,600 tons. In volume, New York outpaced Virginia by about 80 percent. But New York has only about 20 percent more wineries than Virginia. This data demonstrates that Virginia wineries are producing significantly fewer grape tons per winery, and this is one of the reasons why Virginia’s emerging wine scene is so special.
Virginia’s focus on smaller-scale boutique wineries has helped our wine trails stand out as unique attractions for agro-tourism. Most Virginia wineries are small family businesses, and you are likely to find one of the owners in the tasting room when you visit. Many wineries produce just enough wine to sell out of their tasting rooms, but not enough to enter the larger U.S. or international market.
And while U.S. data shows little growth in grape tons but intense growth in revenue, Virginia numbers demonstrate explosive growth in both grape tons and revenues. In 2005, Virginia produced about 5,600 tons of grapes; by 2014 this grew to about 8,000 tons.
Grape crush
Virginia’s largest wine market competitor on the East Coast is New York, with Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia also being key players. But Virginia’s lower number of wineries compared with New York means we are producing fewer grape tons per winery, thus making our boutique wineries stand out.
2014 grape harvest yield:
New York: 44,000 tons
Virginia: 8,600 tons
One thing Virginia and New York have in common is a local restaurant scene that supports local wine. In New York, most serious restaurant wine lists feature a New York selection, and the same holds true in Virginia. You’ll even find a few Virginia restaurants such as Field & Main (Marshall), Revolutionary Soup (Charlottesville), the former Brookville (Charlottesville) and The Roosevelt (Richmond) pouring almost exclusively Virginia wines. This synergy between local food and wine is helping to create and define new regional cuisines. Take, for instance, the magic combination of fresh soft-shell crabs paired with a local petit manseng. The pairings help create a lasting dining culture that can sustain long-term business and promote regionality.
Over the last four decades, the East Coast wine scene has shaken off the dust that settled over a diminished industry crippled by Prohibition. Today, these wineries are poised to take the next step in creating lasting impacts on local culture and cuisines.
Erin Scala is the sommelier at Fleurie and Petit Pois. She holds the Diploma of Wines & Spirits, is a Certified Sake Specialist and writes about beverages on her blog, thinking-drinking.com.
Taylor Crannis routinely climbs 90 feet in the air to trim trees with a razor-sharp chainsaw while using geometry to map out his pruning plan. Photo by Amy Jackson
Inside this year’s Outdoors Issue, you’ll learn about eight different jobs that celebrate being outside—and all the tricks of the trade that a few local workers employ. From geometry calculations to determine where to cut a tree limb to avoid hitting a window or power line to how best to move a rattlesnake from a much-used park path (carefully and slowly!), these workers love what they do and say being outside is the key to their happiness.
Attorney Andrew Sneathern says he's "strangely fitted" for the 5th District.
Photo Eze Amos
Touting his background growing up on a farm and as an attorney, Andrew Sneathern threw his cap into the 2018 5th District congressional race today before dozens of supporters at Champion Brewery.
Sneathern, 46, plans to tap into the “unbelievable wealth of power coming from the Democratic party now, something I’ve never seen before,” he says.
A former assistant prosecutor for Albemarle County who now has a private practice, the Missouri-raised attorney says he understands the problems of rural residents in the 5th District from his own family’s experience farming 2,700 acres, which took eight people to run when he was a kid and now three people work it.
“Those jobs are not coming back,” he says, “and anyone who tells you they are, either doesn’t understand or is flat-out lying.”
A Dem has not won the 5th since Tom Perriello snagged one term in 2008 and it was “gerrymandered to keep a Democrat from winning again,” says Sneathern. “I’m strangely fitted for the 5th.”
Sneathern noted the “fear and mistrust” coming from the election of Donald Trump, and says he has the endorsement of Trump antagonist Khizr Khan. “We are a better country, a better commonwealth when we recognize we are more alike than different,” he says.
Referring to local patriots from the Revolutionary War era and casting 2018 as an epic election year, Sneathern says when his future grandchildren ask, “When it was your time, what did you do?” he wants to look back and say, “We all stood up together.”
Charlottesvillians Roger Dean Huffstetler and Adam Slate say they’re running in 2018 as well. Republican Congressman Tom Garrett, who just took office in January, has not announced whether he’ll seek another term.
Updated 6/2/17 to add candidate Roger Dean Huffstetler.
