Still in Tennessee...We visited the Mountain Music Museum earlier today and may go downtown to listen to some local bands on Broad Street a little later.
From the Mountain Music Museum website:
"Singers and musicians from the middle Appalachian region have contributed enormously to the rise and perpetuation of Mountain Music, Bluegrass and Country, including many within a short drive of the official Birthplace Of Country Music: the twin cities of Bristol, VA-TN.
In July 1927, musical history was made just a few steps from the famous state line that divides the two Bristols. A gentleman by the name of Ralph Peer came to town on behalf of the Victor Talking Machine Company on a mission to record some of the unique Mountain Music that the area was so rich in.
Over the course of the next two weeks, Peer recorded the sounds of The Stoneman Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and arguably the most influential group in music history, The Carter Family. Those now-famous "Bristol Sessions" represented the birth of what we know today as Country Music.
While the performers who participated in the Bristol Sessions never obtained wealth on a grand scale like today's entertainers, the influence they had on the world of music is simply beyond compare. The legendary career of the Carter Family proved that a good living could indeed be made by performing music, and a large portion of the huge catalog of songs attributed to A.P. Carter have been performed by singers and musicians in virtually every musical genre. And there probably isn't a guitar player alive today who hasn't made an attempt at Mother Maybelle's "Wildwood Flower".
Of course there are many other music legends who hailed from the Birthplace Of Country Music region including the great Tennessee Ernie Ford, a Bristol native. There are also dozens of lesser-known, but just as important singers and musicians who have had a tremendous amount of influence on the world of Mountain Music. Ralph Blizzard, Patsy Cline, Dr. Ralph Stanley, Janette and Joe Carter...the list just goes on and on!"
Mountain Music Museum & Gift Shop
500 Gate City Highway, Suite 140
Bristol, Virginia 24201
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