Good morning, Cookeville.

This morning felt great but it will soon get back into the nineties this afternoon. Tuesday is supposed to remember it is September, and I am taking that personally in the best way.

In today's Cookeville Scoop:

Let's get into it.

Booked & Unplugged celebrates one year tonight. Plenty Downtown Bookshop at 41 W Broad Street turns into a listening room Monday from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Tickets are $15 plus a small fee, and the room is capped at 50. This is the night the feature is about, so if you want a chair, grab a ticket! Get tickets.

The Chamber's State of Local Government luncheon is Wednesday. Putnam County's mayor and the mayors of Algood, Baxter, Cookeville, and Monterey speak from 11 AM to 1 PM at Leslie Town Centre, 1 W 1st Street. Ascend Federal Credit Union is the sponsor. Day-of tickets are $30 for members and $35 for everyone else. The question deadline already passed, so come to listen. Reserve a seat.

Social Line Dancing is this afternoon at Cane Creek. Mondays run 12:30 to 3 PM at Cane Creek Recreation Center, 180 C C Camp Road. Everyone is welcome and no experience is required. It is a $5 drop-in if sitting still through a 91-degree Monday is not the plan. See the listing.

Cookeville volleyball hosts La Vergne Tuesday at 5 PM. Girls varsity, Cavaliers vs Wolverines, at Cookeville High School, 1 Cavalier Drive. Tickets are $8 through GoFan ($7 plus a $1 fee). Indoor gym, school-night energy, no heat advisory required. Buy tickets.

The Putnam Room. Now open Mondays from 3 to 9 PM at 319 E Spring Street, on top of Tuesday through Friday 11 AM to 9 PM and Saturday 4 to 10 PM. Happy hour is still 3 to 5 PM, plus the Saturday late window from 8 to 10 PM. Taylor Douglas and Chef Thomas Hobson run it. Call 931-644-3722 if you want a table, because the hours footer on the same page still skips Monday. See the site.

Crawdaddy's is on the weekday drink board. Monday is Tito's Handmade Vodka at $4.99. Tuesday every draft is half price. Wednesday is the Aperol Spritz. Kitchen hours are 11 AM to 10 PM at 53 W Broad Street. Check the current specials.

Drake's is running Oktoberfest through October 4. The Cookeville location at 1010 S Walnut Avenue posted a German-inspired stretch starting today, including Bavarian Mini Beer Brats and Reuben Eggrolls. Happy hour is Monday through Friday, 2 to 5 PM and 9 PM to close. See what's happening.

Raniece Can got tired of watching good songs lose to the blender.

She moved to Cookeville from New York, missed the songwriter rooms she used to walk into, and then sat through a tiny show about an hour from here. Five people in the room. Everybody listening. She told the Herald-Citizen she thought, Cookeville deserves this too.

So she built it. Booked & Unplugged started in a friend's photography gallery on Spring Street, PhotoArt Gallery and Studio, with a handful of chairs and original songs. Attendance crept from about eight people to twelve, then around twenty. When gallery owner Ron Baker died in a motorcycle accident, the series lost a home and a friend in the same week.

A year later the numbers are the kind you can hold: 42 independent artists, 11 live shows, more than $2,200 paid directly to performers, at least 150 people who showed up to listen. Can has been blunt about the point. "I created Booked & Unplugged because I was tired of seeing artists treated like background music," she said. "At the heart of Booked & Unplugged, that's what I want every artist to feel: you are not background music here. We came to listen."

Tonight the anniversary lands at Plenty Downtown Bookshop, 41 W Broad Street, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. Eight artists who have already played the series are coming back. The Herald-Citizen did not print the full bill, so I am not going to guess it. Door prizes, a 50-person cap, and a room that is supposed to stay quiet enough to hear the story behind the song.

Tickets are $15 through Plenty. If you have been meaning to support original music without standing in a bar shouting over a TV, this is the night.

Get tickets at Plenty

Cookeville City Council voted 4-0 Thursday to renew Flock Safety license plate readers. The $60,000 two-year lease covers 10 cameras. Mayor Chad Gilbert and Police Chief Scott Winfree say the units photograph plates, not people, and that reads drop off after 30 days. About 20 residents objected, including Austin Fife and John Dotson.

The flock stays. The argument is not over.

Art Quest – Hands-on art with Annette Romero for ages 12 through adult, 10:15 to 11:30 AM

Lunch and Learn: Medieval Arts – Free Middle Ages arts talk with Ellen DeLacey at the Cookeville library, 12 to 1 PM

Crafternoon – Kids make a mini llama piñata for Hispanic Heritage Month, 3:30 to 4:30 PM

Dinner and Learn: Medieval Manuscripts – Same reenactment group, manuscripts this time, 4 to 5 PM

Games Against Roasted – 21+ party games with Brook Jolley and Soundboy, 7 to 9 PM

Story & a Craft – Elephant Appreciation Day with Elephant and Piggie stories and games, 10 to 11 AM

Chess Club – Free chess for ages 13 and up, 3:30 to 5:30 PM

Trivia Tuesday – Free 21+ trivia at Roasted with prizes, 7 to 9 PM

Scrabble Club – Weekly Scrabble for ages 13 and up, 3:30 to 5:30 PM

Tracks & Racks – 21+ karaoke and pool tournament at Roasted, 7 to 10 PM

Shakespeare in the Afternoon – Free All's Well That Ends Well discussion at Plenty with director Sam Raper, Saturday 2 PM

Cemetery Walk – Historical stories at Cookeville City Cemetery, Saturday 6 to 7:30 PM, registration required

Medieval Arts at lunch, manuscripts after work. Ellen DeLacey and a local reenactment group are at the Cookeville library, 50 E Broad Street, today from noon to 1 PM for a free talk on arts of the Middle Ages. The library is pitching it as a warm-up for Shakespeare in the Park's All's Well That Ends Well (October 2-10). If you want a second hour, they repeat with manuscripts from 4 to 5 PM. See Lunch and Learn or the manuscript hour.

Hispanic Heritage Crafternoon is the same building. From 3:30 to 4:30 PM, kids make a mini llama piñata and talk through traditional textile patterns. It sits neatly between the two medieval programs if you are already downtown. See the Cookeville library calendar.

Stuart is listed as an 8-month-old Labrador Retriever / American Bulldog mix at the Cookeville-Putnam County Animal Shelter, Pet ID A012613. The shelter is at 2650 Gainesboro Grade. Dogs 5 months and older are $170, which includes spay/neuter, vaccinations, microchip, and heartworm testing. Adoption hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday 12 to 5 PM, and Tuesday and Thursday 12 to 6 PM. Appointments are recommended. Cash or check only. Call 931-526-3647 before you drive out, because listings move. See Stuart's listing or the shelter page.

Tuesday is when September finally tries. Weather.com has us dropping from 91 today to 82 tomorrow to 77 Wednesday, which is not sweater weather and still feels like a personality shift after a week of 90s. The equinox is in the mix this week too. I am not asking the maple trees for a show. I am asking the evening to last a little longer without the AC arguing about it.

Monday 91 / 67 | 15% rain
Tuesday 82 / 63 | 24% rain
Wednesday 77 / 61 | 22% rain

Share this with someone who still thinks Cookeville has nowhere to hear original music. Have a Monday-through-Wednesday tip? Reply to this email and I will look it up.

Thanks for reading. Go listen to somebody tonight, or at least enjoy the first cooler evening like it is a holiday. 🧡

-- Travis