Advertisement
Published: October 13th 2011
Edit Blog Post
The Museum of Appalachia's Tennessee Fall Homecoming is a bit of a mouthful for the title of a Festival but it promised to have over 20 different mountain music and bluegrass bands playing so we decided it was worth a look. We weren't too sure what a 'homecoming' might involve but it was pretty clear it had something to do with a gathering and probably of people who were coming 'home'. Wiki told us that it was normally something that schools or colleges engage in to bring alumni back for a celebration. We figured that the definition wasn't all that precise and, anyway, they probably wouldn't mind if a couple of stray Australians turned up.
Now before we go on let us get one thing straight you don't pronounce Appalachia 'appa-lay-sha' as I am prepared to bet most Australians pronounce the word. Instead it is 'apple-at-cha', at least according to everyone else there.
The event was held over 4 days at Andersonville, near Clinton, East Tennessee. I call it East Tennessee because everyone else did and I'm pretty convinced, after spending time there, that East Tennessee is at least a separate State. The Homecoming has been held for over
30 years and it seemed as though every second artist had been there at the beginning. It is held at the Museum of Appalachia which is a reconstructed old time mountain village containing old cabins, corn cribs, barns and all manner of old Americana, or more precisely old 'Appalachia'. Thirty years ago there was one cabin, a few bands and a total audience of 300. This weekend there were 5 official stages operating, a few unofficial, but welcome, porch performers, all sorts of artisan stalls, food and I have no idea how many people. A lot more than 300 but it was spread over about 20 acres and didn't normally feel crowded.
We were able to take in one and a half days of the festival and that gave us a pretty good opportunity to wander about the various stalls, get a dulcimer lesson and take in performances at all of the stages. As you might expect the music was a mixed bag. There was a bit of western swing that we were a little surprised to see at a festival focusing on the Appalachians. Those bands were professional and competent but their music isn't really to our taste
25 sorts of pumpkins for sale
mainly for Thanksgiving decorations, although we were told they are all edible at all. The beauty of this fesitval was that there were always many other options. There was also a pretty reasonable sprinkling of gospel or, perhaps gospel bluegrass to be more precise. Around this part of the Bible Belt the relationship between the folks and their religion is up-close and personal. There were also many, many bands playing a mixture of bluegrass, a sort of mountain folk and very old English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish music.
As makes sense at such festivals, the big, more popular acts were on at the stage that could accommodate the largest crowds. As a result we tended not to be there. Our interest lay more in what were obviously lesser known acts but ones that were playing music closer to the Appalachian music we had heard previously. That said, there were still some very good acts on at the big stage. One of the best was a band that had recently released a CD with Steve Martin, the actor-come-banjo player. This band, the Steep Canyon Rangers, had the usual array of instruments for a band here – fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar and double bass/bass fiddle – but, in an excellent field, had the
Music on the porch
Traditional Appalachian folk music here best fiddle player at this festival. It was a very slick outfit and very good.
There were a lot of very good musicians about and many who were obviously very well known, although we had never heard of them. Some excellent bluegrass and mountain music. The ones we particularly enjoyed were: Conservation Theory – a group of greenies who were having a lot of fun and weren't at all bad; Tazewell Pike – whose leader was an actual 'Carter' descended from one of the Carter Family; Dave West and the Cider Mountain Boys; Melvyn Goins and Windy Mountain – a 77 year old country and bluegrass singer who was still going strong; Johnny Bellar – one of the best dobro players about; and Dr John Simon and Friends – who were enthusiastic and played good music without any risk that they will ever be superstars.
Many of the bands were comprised of families or family members, on occasion with 3 generations on stage and playing. One man of 91 was still going well and singing strongly although they had, perhaps, turned down the mike on his banjo a little. There were any number of men and women well
Youngster learning as well
This 13 year old is great on the autoharp as well over 70 participating and giving excellent performances. The program had an obituary page listing the performers who had died since the last festival. None were under 80.
It wasn't all about the music of course. There was also 'traditional' food. I must say that I am pleased that the Mexicans took on beans and made them good. The fare served up in the 'As much as you can eat Beans and Corn Bread' tent was filling but it is really no wonder people tried to spice up their lives with music and a little moonshine.
On the subject of moonshine, one of the saddest stories we heard was about an old man who, at a much earlier festival, had operated a still to show people how it was done in the old days. He had been a moonshiner and had done time a long time ago for the offences he committed. He was handing out free samples of the product. Some visitors and then the local police took a dim view and charged him. On the day of his trial he committed suicide leaving a note that said he wouln't live another day of his life in a
box.
There is a different attitude to alcohol here. You can buy beer in a lot of places but not wine or spirits. To get those you need to find a liquor store. Not so tough I suppose but it is a nuisance having to get used to different systems all of the time. This time we weren't at all surprised to attend a festival operating over 4 days without a drop of alcohol either on sale or allowed to be brought in to the venue. That doesn't mean that there isn't liquor consumed though. There are also signs warning about driving under the influence but no apparent routine testing such as we experience at home. A Tennessee Senator has just been caught by the police driving while stinking of liquor, able only to stumble, not able to speak coherently and with a loaded hand gun, holstered though, on the seat beside him.
All in all an excellent festival and one worth going to if you enjoy bluegrass or mountain music. The people were friendly and very prepared to chat to a couple of wandering foreigners.
We had camped about 15 kms away from the venue in
a County campground at Lake Norris. A well set up camp with power, hot water and showers in a peaceful and relaxed setting, with only a couple of other people there - and they were over the other side of the grounds. The Lake is part of the water supply for Knoxville and wider.
After leaving we decided we needed to check out dulcimers. One of the performers we talked to gave us the name of a shop in Townsend on the way to Cade's Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains and we dropped in to have a look. Complete with a mountain dulcimer and a thing called a lap harp we continued on to Cade's Cove for a good look at the scenery. The leaves were well on the turn through here and it was a great drive. Plenty of other people thought the same but the traffic wasn't too tedious. Not so in Gatlinburg where the traffic was hopeless and the place was chock full of people. We didn't stop, although while we were at the traffic lights we saw a bear race across the road and into a shopping centre carpark, closely pursued by two police
Family and friends
One of the bigger groups cars which were a bit slower as they had to use the road.
Off towards the coast now for a last time before we head west.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.43s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 35; qc: 139; dbt: 0.2006s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.5mb