Author: Easin' Along

Tennessee has used two slogans that capture the essence of our state very effectively. A few years ago, the slogan was “Tennessee Sounds Good to Me” and promoted the music for which we are famous.  The current slogan, “Tennessee, the State of Music” is not quite as catchy, but still does a good job of telling the world who we are.

The music of our state is a great source of pride to our citizens, and we love showing it off.  Memphis, on the western end of the State, is known for the Blues, Nashville, in the middle of the State, is famous for Country Music and the town is thriving because of it. In the East Tennessee hills, our music is Bluegrass, complete with banjo and fiddle.

In Knoxville, where Helen (adorable wife) and I live, three festivals were held recently to showcase not only the music of the region but music in general.  The Big Ears Festival (link) proclaimed as the most diverse music festival in America, features everything from Jazz to “experimental” in seven separate venues.  This year’s Festival in late March drew 8,000 folks from all over the world.

Two weeks later, the Rhythm and Blooms Festival (link) kicked off to coincide with the blooming of our Dogwoods and the arrival of spring.  This festival features a lot of local artists and groups and takes place over three days and in different venues in an area of downtown called The Old City. This festival is now in its tenth year.

This past weekend, the 17th Rossini Festival celebrated music with an international flair.  This event, hosted by the Knoxville Opera Company, brought tens of thousands of people to fill our city streets to enjoy the music of over 1,000 performers. While Opera is the focus of the one-day event, festival attendees enjoy Bluegrass, Chamber music, vocal groups, choral groups, college bands and choirs, even street dancers. Helen and I left home early for our first visit to this Festival in an Uber car. We understood that parking would be a challenge and large crowd had already formed when we arrived.

In addition to the music heard in every direction, young festival-goers enjoyed games and rides in order to release some of that early morning energy.  A long line of Moms and Dads formed in front of the trampoline while holding back children eager to get in on the fun. Another line stood in front of the Merry-Go-Round.

Helen, fresh off of knee replacement, and me with an ailing hip, worked our way through the very large and tight crowd to the first music venue where we encountered a delightful surprise.  Lindsey, a gifted University student who sings in our church choir, was on the stage and filling the air with a beautiful soprano solo. We stayed to tell her how much we enjoyed it.

Back on the streets, we enjoyed the talents of the many musicians including another performing duo that I had heard before.  A beautiful bass player and her guitarist partner occupied one of the street corners, and I recognized her from a blog post I wrote several years ago.  I gave her the nickname Tallulah at the time.  Both are excellent musicians, and it was good to see that they are still in the area.

Food vendors were everywhere.  Helen and I had a difficult time selecting our choice for lunch stops which is unusual for us.  We postponed that decision—it was still early.

Another group familiar to me played chamber music on a corner about a block away from Tallulah–The Anderson Family, a mom, and her very gifted children.  I heard them play while attending the WDVX Blue Plate Special in 2016.  Their skills are exceptional and have progressed as they have grown older. (See post, at the bottom)

In the middle of the crowd, a card trick artist entertained a very large audience with his magic and drew a robust round of applause when he predicted the exact card he was looking for out of a very well-shuffled deck. Almost everyone was impressed except Oliver, an English bulldog sitting quietly to one side.

 

After walking to one end of the festival street to listen to an excellent horn ensemble from a local junior college, we decided we should grab lunch before the crowds became impossible.  We both selected lamb gyros and a Greek salad. We devoured them while listening to another performance from the Opera stage.

Greek food vendor

 

We needed to walk off our lunch, so, once again, we made our way through the streets to browse through the many booths set up by vendors and enjoy some more music. On one corner a Bluegrass band was belting out a stirring rendition of Fox On the Run as the crowd clapped to the tune. At the far end of the street, a choral group from another junior college was preparing to perform Broadway Show tunes.  We stayed to hear them and felt rewarded handsomely.  These young folks can sing.

At 2:30, the Opera Company would perform two selections from an upcoming performance of the Opera Aida, and since we knew that it would take some time to walk back through the crowd to the Opera Stage, we decided to leave in plenty of time to make it there and get good seats.  About halfway there we ran into some friends who laughed at us both walking on canes and wanted to take our picture.  I tried to fend them off, but finally, Helen relented and handed them the camera.

Back at the Opera stage, a crowd was gathering in eager anticipation of the Aida selections.  Luck was with us, and we found two seats near the stage to people-watch while waiting for the show. Knoxville Mayor, Madeline Rogero, and several other elected officials waited with us before taking the stage to welcome the crowd and introduce the Opera Company director. Suddenly, the singers took their places, and it was “show-time.”

Eager to share this music with Easin’ Along readers, I recorded a video of both songs and placed one of them at the bottom of the page. I apologize for the shake in the clip, but I didn’t have a tripod with me.  Nevertheless, the music is awesome, and I promise that the three minutes you spend watching it will be among the best three minutes in your day. I hope you immerse yourself in it. As they entertain you, we’ll continue Easin’ Along ‘cuz our hills are alive…with the sound of music.

We’ve had a gloomy winter in our hometown.  Our trip to Florida (link) gave us some respite from the gloom, but we returned to nothing but rain and general overall yuckiness. It seems now, however, that the pattern is changing and we are due for a prolonged stretch of clearer skies and milder temperatures. On Tuesday of this week, I peered out the window of the Man Cave and caught an unfamiliar sight…sunshine, glorious sunshine.

Fortunately, my schedule was wide open.  Helen (adorable wife) is still involved with therapy for her healing knee, but she can drive herself leaving me free to roam at will. I quickly checked the schedule for the WDVX Blue Plate Special on the Inside of Knoxville website and made sure that something musical was happening there, then grabbed the camera and jumped into Freddie (my beloved FJ Cruiser).

The plan was to capture as many spring flowers with my camera as I could on my way to the WDVX studio and share them with Easin’ Along readers that may still be shrouded in winter’s gloom. The flowers and flowering trees have bloomed later than usual this year, but when they decided to give us a peek, they came out in radiant colors.

Every year at this time our city hosts a Dogwood Arts Festival to celebrate the arrival of spring and to highlight the beauty and culture of our region.  As part of that event, the festival committee designates a few of our city streets as Dogwood Trails due to the abundance of flowers, trees, and gardens found there. I drove to one of those trails. 

The tulips seemed particularly bright and colorful this year, and it was not difficult to spot some of them right away. Here are the tulips that popped out for my camera. I especially like white ones shown here plus those at the top of the page.

Not to be outdone, the azaleas appeared at their peak in a variety of colors and blossoms. If all goes well, they should stay with us for a while longer.  The few shown here certainly should help to erase some of the hangovers from endless days of gray sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the early daffodils have bloomed and disappeared already, but there was one area near the Dogwood Trail covered in bright yellow.  The picture taken here is just a small sample of what was in front of me. I estimated that there had to be thousands of flowers in that field.

You can’t have a Dogwood Festival without Dogwoods and this year’s crop seemed eager to show their stuff.  Unfortunately, a blight affected the dogwood trees many years ago and resulted in a tree that produced an ugly brown bloom…I have one in my yard.  Nevertheless, botanists and researchers have worked diligently to produce strains resistant to the blight, and we are seeing the results now.  Here is one such tree.

I could take pictures all morning, but it was time for me and the camera to take in some music. The Blue Plate Special, a live radio show, begins every weekday at noon. The WDVX studio is on the edge of downtown in the Knoxville Visitor Center. I can’t think of a better way to introduce visitors to the region than to showcase the music that is such a large part of what is inside native Tennesseans.   

The featured music is predominately Bluegrass, but other forms, including (but not limited to) blues, folk, country, and gospel are featured as well. Often, performers traveling through or performing in the city will come on the show to promote their music or performance at another venue at a later time. There is no charge for the one-hour radio show. I took a seat in the second row.

At exactly 12:00 noon, the studio host, Red Hickey (don’t you love the name), welcomed the modest live crowd and the radio audience to the day’s offering.  In return, Red received a vibrant burst of applause from an enthusiastic crowd. Next, she introduced us to the first group, a quartet of young men from nearby Kingsport, Tennessee who called themselves the Smokehouse Crickets. Ms. Hickey asked them about the name’s origin, but I’m not certain we ever received a clear answer.  What we did receive was some great music.

 

I’m not a musician, nor a student of music.  I do know if I like it, however, and I like the music of the Smokehouse Crickets a lot.  The selections played for us I would call something akin to a lively arrangement of Blues bordering on Modern Country music. The music was heavy on guitar and written by the lead singer.  All are talented musicians, and the principal guitar player also broke out his trumpet on one selection. The audience loved it.

There were two groups featured on this day with each playing approximately thirty minutes.  The second group, Chris Ross, and the North hailed from the State of Maine and were scheduled to perform that night in Knoxville. They had made it to town that morning after appearing in Nashville the night before.  Although they looked a bit road weary, they sounded great and happily told the audience that they were looking forward to being home by the weekend. I would describe their sound as having Country Music overtones and featured an excellent lead guitarist. The lead singer had a very strong voice.

The show ended precisely at 1:00 pm after Red Hickey told us about the shows for the remainder of the week. I parted ways with the crowd a smidgeon early to grab a bite of lunch before time expired on my free two-hour parking permit. Free entertainment and free downtown parking is an unbeatable combination.

My chosen lunch spot is a café within a short walk of the Visitor Center called NotWatson’s, named after a department store (Watsons) that closed many years ago in the same building.

I’ll share my hot and tasty Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and fries with you as you enjoy a snippet of video from the Smokehouse Crickets’ performance at the Blue Plate Special (below). I’ve even placed a few tulips on the table. 

Tulips for the table

 

 

 

It’s a beautiful day for Easin’ Along.