the pondering pomegranate: Bristol sessions & the family fold

after more than twenty years living in the piedmont area of our state, we have almost exhausted the list of short, great roadtrips. our closest (and preferred) destinations are the mountains of North Carolina & Virginia; and one place we had not (yet) visited was Bristol (which shares its name with both Tennessee and Virginia) & the nearby Carter Family Fold (you know, that family Johnny Cash married into). a long, teenage-free weekend (thanks, Mom & Dad!) seemed the perfect time to hit the Crooked Road ~

along the trail in the Iron Mountain area of Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee

our route to Bristol took us, briefly, through Tennessee (& enjoyable antiquing in Mountain City) before returning to more familiar territory in southwest Virginia. along the way, we crossed paths with the Appalachian Trail and the Virginia Creeper Trail (great biking along an old railbed) around Damascus, Virginia. Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest becomes Virginia's Jefferson National Forest at the state line, and we stopped for a short stroll on the Tennessee side.

moss & fern along the trail

we both love mountain streams

and sat for a while

listening to this one.

i think my uber-meticulous planning of our long western roadtrip last summer may have burned me out just a wee bit. i found myself really winging it or waiting until the last minute on this one. i did make hotel reservations ahead of time, and we had a general idea of some things we wanted to see/do & when that might occur - but details, schmetails. we did happen to have dinner in a great little downtown restaurant ~ Eatz, which specialized in finger-licking food (e.g., bbq, cornbread, banana pudding, etc.). as we left, we spoke a minute to the owner/cook, who was smiling when she turned off the 'Open' sign . . . said her business had tripled in the last two weeks!

Eatz on Moore Street, with owner's reflection in lower right of glass.

the next day, we ended up eating lunch at the Burger Bar, which is supposedly the last place Hank Williams was ever noted to be alive. what i mean is, his driver (on the way to a show in Ohio), stopped in Bristol (though later in life the driver thinks, maybe, he confused it with Bluefield) to get something to eat. he asked Hank Williams, in the back seat, if he wanted anything; Hank said 'no,' and was dead the next time the driver checked on him ~ up in Ohio. 'least that's the story.

burgers = meh . . . parmesan cheese fries with bbq alioli dipping sauce = aMAzing!

there was a street festival the day we arrived, and we enjoyed walking around downtown Bristol (we parked in Tennessee & strolled into Virginia!) to see the sights. they've managed to preserve (or, rather, not destroy) many old building signs, which we always like seeing. hubby was interested in finding the location of the original Bristol Sessions back in 1927, when record execs came down from NYC & 'discovered' what they called at the time 'hillbilly' music.

State Street in Bristol ~ Tennessee side

the main East-West street in downtown
is literally split in two by the TN/VA state line.

it's called State Street.

the other thing people come to Bristol for is the race track. our hotel was almost entirely booked by folks going to a big drag racing event at the track. supposedly, way back during prohibition, some people got really good at driving cars fast.

we were wondering what the industry was in Bristol, and it seems to center itself around the King family. this was the site of their plantation & became the idea for a town when the railroad decided to cross tracks here.

the King clothing factory, still in business!

on the Tennessee side

there was a classic car show near the old train depot, too

1950's Ford, not unlike the one my in-laws drove off in the day they married.

gorgeous interior

i love car faces

the short-lived Edsel

side shot of Chevy with hood open

meticulous!

now i get it. this classic car & nostalgia thing. all the others, i could view with a sort of detached appreciation. but they had one car from the late '70's, and now i get it. (although my family never owned one of these, it was sooooo familiar!)

&, lo and behold, i purchased a 25cent 1977 Newsweek

at one of the antique stores

with this ad in it!
(hm. starting to dawn on me
that i may be getting. . .old.)

one of the must-do's on our itinerary was the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in downtown Bristol. it did not disappoint, even for this less-than-learned tourist.

one exhibit i greatly enjoyed showed how certain songs

have been reinterpreted over the years.

some examples. . .

Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow

link to song by the Carter Family

link to song by Natalie Merchant

Pretty Polly

link to song by B.F. Shelton

link to song by Vandaveer

The Longest Train I Ever Saw

link to song by Tenneva Ramblers

link to song by Lead Belly

link to song by Nirvana

after that kind of inspiration,

we decided we could definitely become

professional musicians.

violin tutorial. i (re)learned three notes.

banjo tutorial. also, three notes.

so, with that under our belts, there was no place else to head

but to the Carter Family Fold!

Poor Valley ~ view from the Carter family's home church & cemetary

story is that A.P. Carter's family helped build this church

gray steeple ~ gray sky

Queen Anne's Lace

the graves are at the very back of the cemetery.

Sara's grave (with A.P.'s in distance)

A.P.'s grave

so, here's the short story. A.P. heard Sara playing music & became enamored of her. he would walk 60 miles roundtrip to court her. they married, had three children along the way, brought in Sara's cousin Maybelle (who eventually married A.P.'s brother, Ezra), & became the Carter Family.

problem was that A.P. continued to like to take very long walks (sometimes disappearing for a month or two). and other problem was, Sara loved another (who didn't take long walks). although they continued performing as the Carter Family, Sara left A.P., married Coy Bayes (one of A.P.'s cousins), and lived the rest of her life with him in California.

A.P.'s grocery store (now Carter Family Museum)

i loved the rainbow tiles!

A.P. eventually stayed put & tried his hand at running a grocery store. it now houses lots of memorabilia from the heyday of the Carter Family.

Maybelle, A.P., Sara

Sara, Maybelle, A.P.

Sara & (i believe) her daughter Janette

old pump organ with reflection in mirror of Carter Family stained glass

Sara & Maybelle's golden reunion dresses

braided hair, but no note of whose!

photo of A.P. & Sara

the cabin in which A.P. was raised is now

on the same property

as the grocery store & music hall

speaking with a volunteer who grew up with AP's youngest child, Joe, and recalled driving out west with Joe to visit Sara & Coy in California. he also knew Maybelle's children, including June who later married Johnny Cash. (Johnny Cash's rocking chair is just behind Mike.)

these two little family- and volunteer-run museums are open every Saturday evening, before & during intermission of the radio broadcast from the Carter Family Fold ~ which generally features a band and an open floor for dancing. they have some homemade concessions, and we enjoyed an egg salad sandwich, a country ham biscuit, and a piece of strawberry cake! the band was good yet unremarkable (plus the exuberant kids from Tennessee's Governor's School kind of overpopulated the dance floor), so we decided to wander down the road a bit & check out some more Carter family landmarks. . .