The owners of Hard Truth Hills are planning to make some changes to reduce the impact outdoor bands are having on the surrounding neighborhood.
Three neighbors of the sprawling, 300-plus-acre campus approached the Nashville Town Council on Sept. 19 about enforcing Nashville’s noise ordinance in regard to Hard Truth Hills. All of them live in the valley behind the stage where the sound is originating. One other speaker said she could hear the music from the first curve in Helmsburg Road.
None of the owners of the restaurant/distillery on Old State Road 46 attended the council discussion because of a previously scheduled business meeting. A Hard Truth Hills employee addressed the crowd in their place.
Ed Ryan, one of the owners, told The Democrat on Sept. 24 that he believed changes could be made to help satisfy the neighbors.
“I want the world to know that we are going to work with the bands to not be so loud, and we’re in the process of putting sound-deadening panels around the stage,” he said.
“I’m sure we can make this so it works for everybody.”
In Nashville, it is against local ordinance for sound to be heard 25 feet from the property line where it’s originating. The rules are the same whether those sounds are dogs barking, engines running or musicians playing, if someone considers them to be a nuisance.
Since May 1, the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department has received seven calls about noise coming from Hard Truth Hills, and three of them have been about noise after 10 p.m., Chief of Police Ben Seastrom told the council on Sept. 19. Two more complaints were reported the following Saturday, according to the sheriff’s department’s dispatch logs.
Keith Baker lives just off Greasy Creek Road near Hard Truth Hills. He told the council he’s unable to sit on his porch on Friday and Saturday nights because of constant bass thumping. It’s also interrupted his sleep, he said.
As a former member of the Brown County Council and Brown County Redevelopment Commission, Baker worked to help make this business happen. He called Hard Truth Hills “one of best things to happen to our community for business — and I still believe that today.” However, “I don’t see somebody (being able to) diminish my quality of life to make more money in their pocket for their business,” he said.
He also said the kind of music matters, because it wouldn’t be as much of a problem if it was bluegrass or acoustic rather than “heavy metal.”
Debby Rogers, one of Baker’s neighbors, said she’d called the Hard Truth Hills office and waited two months for them to fix the problem, then called in to ask them to turn down the music two more times before she decided to call police.
Brandon Harris, who lives on Greasy Creek, said the music affects his young family’s bedtime. Sally Baldwin, who spends a lot of time at her fiance’s house on Helmsburg Road, said when she sits on the porch on Friday and Saturday nights, she can’t hear the crickets like she can at her home in Yellowwood.
“I just think that there’s a lot of people here in Nashville that come for the quietness, and a lot of people rent homes or vacation homes or sit out on their decks at the Brown County Inn or The Seasons, and they don’t want to hear a lot of music,” Baldwin said. “They come here for quiet and the peaceful valley we have.”
Clay Kinnick, who spoke for Hard Truth Hills, said people shouldn’t jump to conclusions about what other people want to hear, whether that’s music, no music, or a specific kind of music.
He disputed the claims that loud thumping was coming from the property every Friday and Saturday night, and said that no “heavy metal” bands had been booked; it’s usually two people with guitars.
“You call me a liar again, sir, we’ll talk,” Baker told him.
“That’s fine, but I book the music in addition to working there,” Kinnick answered. “I know that we have guitar duos, we have solo musicians, we do have bands, and people do enjoy bands. We’ve had soul music with trumpets. There’s been a very wide variety, so for people to speak who aren’t witness to this, or say they can hear it on Helmsburg Road and it’s us, I don’t know that that’s necessarily the case.”
Someone laughed from the back of the room.
“But I’m not calling anyone a liar,” Kinnick added.
Kinnick said the venue has a self-imposed cutoff of 10 p.m. for outdoor music. When people call to complain about noise — and even when they don’t — a member of the management team regularly goes out on the patio where diners are seated to see if they can have a normal volume conversation and that servers and customers can hear each other. If they can’t, the band is asked to turn it down. He said he asks staff who take those complaint calls to get the caller’s name and number so he can follow up, but no one’s decided to give that information.
Rogers said that system hasn’t worked. “Last weekend I heard all the musical equipment, I heard the amplifiers, I heard the man’s voice, I heard the words the man was singing, and that was after I called them,” she said.
Back in January 2017, when the Brown County Area Plan Commission approved changing the zoning on this large, vacant land parcel to allow for Hard Truth Hills to be built, Ryan assured members of the crowd who had noise concerns that building an amphitheater wasn’t in the plan. Multiple speakers, including Harris, Baker and town council member Nancy Crocker, brought up this past statement during the town council meeting.
When reached by phone last week, Ryan said that what they built at Hard Truth Hills is “not an amphitheater; it’s terraces with a band.” The sound is being projected the opposite way from the Greasy Creek neighborhood, he said.
The hill where Hard Truth Hills was built has great sound projection qualities, said Town Attorney James T. Roberts. It used to be known as Firecracker Hill because that’s where the fireworks used to be set off so that everyone in the sound bowl of Nashville could hear and see them.
“You might not be able to hear it at the courthouse, but you can hear it at a hill across the valley, so that’s something you’re going to have to deal with and work with your neighbors on, but I think there are some remedies on all sides,” Roberts said at the meeting.
Town council President Jane Gore told the crowd that Ryan had agreed to come to a future meeting if questions were asked that the Hard Truth Hills representatives couldn’t address. She stopped short of scheduling that meeting, suggesting that if problems continue, people call the Nashville police.
“We want you to courteous to the public,” she told the Hard Truth Hills reps, who also included company employee Chris Curtin in the audience. “We need some middle ground … because we don’t want to constantly have complaints.”
Gore said that the Nashville Police would keep a record of complaint calls and Seastrom would report back to the council. The next regular council meeting will be Thursday, Oct. 17.
About the noise ordinance
Brown County at large has no noise ordinance, but Nashville does.
The current noise ordinance was passed in the fall of 2012 after a group of residents approached the council initially about motorcycle noise. The council gave them the responsibility of coming up with an ordinance. However, a noise ordinance in some form had been on the books for Nashville since the 1970s.
In order for action to be taken under that ordinance, people who have complaints must report them to the Nashville police and leave their name, address and phone number, Roberts said.
If the source of that noise continues after the maker is told by police to stop or turn it down, a violation may occur. Fines start at $50.
Seastrom said at the September council meeting that he’d been told by former town council members not to enforce the noise ordinance because there were “major problems” with it. Roberts said the problems he was probably referring to, like it being too vague in some of the wording, are “legal urban legend” and he believes it would hold up.
The owners of Hard Truth Hills, who also own Big Woods restaurants in downtown Nashville, ran into conflict with neighbors at their original restaurant downtown because of amplified music. In 2013, they canceled a planned Rally in the Alley downtown because of “continually more restrictive” rules about noise. That event returned in later years, including one that took place Sept. 21 in Molly’s Lane.
The current noise ordinance does allow for a special event permit, which can carry different rules than those stated in the ordinance.
Curtin told the town council that if the noise ordinance is going to be enforced, it should be enforced “100 percent across the board” on every business that violates it, “and not coming down on us … because other things also are in violation.”
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When news of the noise ordinance complaints hit Facebook on Sept. 23, reactions were swift, but not that varied. Comments were heavily in Hard Truth Hills’ favor. Here’s a sampling of what people were saying.
Sandy Smith Richardson: This is the most ridiculous thing EVER. I live back by the cemetery on Artist, one hill over. I absolutely LOVE the nights I can open the windows and get my free HTH concert. It’s not every night and it’s never late. Do people really need something to complain about ALWAYS? Seriously? What do they do when the fair is going on? Sometimes the derby sounds like it’s in my living room. But guess what? I don’t mind because I hear the cheers and know people are having a wonderful time. I suggest people exert more energy in things that really matter here in the county. Or just shut your windows and turn up your TV.
Andi Wilson: We live on Artist Drive and can hear the music from HTH loud and clear. In fact, one night, we could hear it standing just outside of Hobnob. And even when we can hear the music, my husband and I often sit in our front room, windows open, listening to the music. They shut the music down right at 10 p.m. and it’s only on the weekends. It doesn’t bother us when we’re indoors, either. Personally, we love it. The artist’s community is a big reason why we moved here. It’s obvious and understandable that some do not enjoy the music or other noise or even wish for it to interfere with their personal time on their own property. Either way, it’s important that rules are followed, including noise ordinances.
Crystal McGrayel: Any business should consider its neighbors. They don’t from either location. The brewery stinks up the neighborhood so bad I can’t stand to be outside at times. It’s not a positive change.
Jennifer Root: I live one hill over, and while we can definitely hear the music when we are outside, it is over by 10 and the style of music isn’t annoying. It’s present, but I’ve never been annoyed by it. Wanna know what is annoying? I have neighbors who have a huge dog that sits outside barking at 3 a.m. — in town! HTH is the least of our worries.
Joe Bolinger: There is a wide range of sensitivity to noise. Some people can sleep through jackhammers, and some people grind their teeth at cars driving by. It would be foolish to craft public policy based on either extreme of this distribution.
Arthur Phares: It’s great if you like the music and also just as great if you don’t. Make a rule and stand by it, right or wrong. When people want more, tell them there’s a rule, and when people want less, tell them also there’s a rule. But stop oiling the squeaky wheels.
Sarah Dodson: Wake up people. Nashville, Indiana is changing. It is growing with the times. Remember there will be an auction the end of October for a lot of Andy Rogers’ property. Those who are complaining better watch out because if new buyers come in they may change too. The Hard Truth is, nothing remains the same. You learn to endure it!
Wendy Schrimper: We could hear the Little Nashville Opry every Saturday night. Enjoyed sitting on the deck listening. It was better than gunshots.
Ellen Rigley Carter: May I say that many of the same people complain about everything? I’m sure HTH can come up with a compromise and will, but some people will still complain. I hear lots of things where I live and the thing I hate the most is chip and seal road in front of our house on 135 North. Most everything else is music to my ears.
Margaret McLaren: “We want to be known for our music scene.” “We don’t want any outdoor music.” Pick one.
Ben Voils (of the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park): Welcome to the club, Hard Truth.
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