Knoxville

My last big stop on the road from Austin to DC was in Knoxville, Tennessee where Kristen, aka KMac, moved in January. Knoxville is a gateway to the Appalachians, just west of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and Dollywood, among other things. Kristen moved to Knoxville to take a job with the National Park Conservation Association, and as you might expect, she knows a lot about national parks. I arrived in town just in time to meet Kristen and two more of my favorite people ever, Alison & Abi (check out Alison’s summer job here), at a quaint pub in the old part of town. Alison had wanted to meet Matt, one of the founding members of WDVX, a great radio station that seems to be the best radio station to get your music played on, if you’re a musician in the Appalachian tradition. We got a tour of the station, and Matt gave us all kinds of info on the revitalization of Knoxville. Like many cities east of the Mississippi, Knoxville sits on a big river, and has lots of post-industrial space right around the downtown. Knoxville seems to be a smaller version of Austin (minus the state capitol) with the University of Tennessee anchoring the downtown, and with lots of music in the air (minus the plethora of venues).

Other highlights of the weekend included late-night music-making on a friend’s porch, a walk through the farmer’s market on Market Square, a visit to Destination ImagiNation’s Global Finals, tromping around the grounds of an abandoned marble factory (KMac was particularly taken with a random piece of machinery with the word “JOY” engraved on it), having some Petro’s chili & chips (native Knoxville dish invented specially for the 1984 World’s Fair there), live music at Preservation Pub, and a hike in the Great Smoky National Park.