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EXPLORING
KENTUCKY - December 2002 by Katherine Tandy Brown Toe-Tappin'
Country Byway
“In the past music just happened on front porches and back porches,” says Judy Sizemore, a circuit rider for the Kentucky Arts Council. “Area people say, ‘We just didn’t have that much else to do so we made our own entertainment.” Some of these talented locals left home and became famous. A remarkable number of those came from hometowns near US Highway 23. A former Floyd County school music teacher and accomplished musician noticed. Founder, organizer and guiding light of the Kentucky Opry and driving force behind the Mountain Arts Center (MAC) in Prestonsburg, Billie Jean Osborne traced the road from the Ohio River town of South Shore, Kentucky, south to Pound Gap, Virginia. The corridor, she discovered, had birthed 11 country music superstars, a fact she then incorporated into an Opry show. After seeing the performance, U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers became an advocate for the designation of US 23 as Kentucky’s Country Music Highway. In 1996, Gov. Paul Patton dedicated the roadway, and Transportation and Tourism began erecting brown informational signs along its 150 miles. Four folklorists were sent out to work with communities in the highway’s nine counties, identifying the each area’s special cultural traditions. From the resulting folklife inventories evolved the Route 23 Cultural Heritage Network, seven regional arts councils that work to promote cultural heritage tourism and help to provide the support that young and emerging musicians need to carry on the tradition. “The big dream,” Sizemore explains, “is that they wouldn’t have to leave to be successful. In the past they all had this musical talent but not the infrastructure to develop it.” Loretta Lynn was the first to bring national attention to the state’s music and culture with her hit “Coal Miner’s Daughter.” Now Lynn’s brother, Herman Webb, guides visitors through the Butcher Hollow cabin they and sister Crystal Gale once shared. Fellow country music great Hylo Brown also hails from Johnson County, which claims heritage attractions such as the Mountain HomePlace, an 1850s living history farm; the Mayo Mansion, a former coal baron’s house; and the gravesite of courageous pioneer Jenny Wiley. Billy Ray Cyrus is from Flatwoods in Greenup County, where visitor drawing cards include the largemouth bass heaven of Greenbo Lake State Resort Park, and the birthplace and home of poet laureate Jesse Stuart. The Judds come from Ashland, where the classic 1931 Paramount Arts Center hosts musical and stage shows, many with an Appalachian culture focus. Down the street is the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center’s Country Music Highway Heritage exhibit, with career notes and memorabilia for each superstar, a how-it’s-done recording studio and a Karaoke Korner for those who think fame may be calling. Mandolin wizard Ricky Skaggs was born in Blaine in Lawrence County. Nearby in Louisa, a must-see-to-believe hides in an Exxon station. Dubbed “The Birdhouse” by locals because of a tower with views of scenic surroundings, the kitschy Kentucky Paveillon (pronounced pah-vee-yoh) is a gold mine of country music relics. Stars’ stage outfits, guitars and gold records overlook the grocery store’s bologna and soft drinks. “The place is incredible,” says Sizemore. “There’s free live music out back every Friday, so you can stop for ice cream and be entertained in the back courtyard by up-and-coming stars.” Late star Keith Whitley was a Sandy Hook native son. You can see his homeplace and roar with the big bikes each June at the Keith Whitley Memorial Motorcycle Ride. Elliott County is also the site of the Hamilton Branch Diamond Mine and lovely Laurel and Caney gorges. Patty Loveless’s home, Elkhorn City, is on the Kentucky/Virginia border near Breaks Interstate Park, a 4,600-acre kayakers’ paradise called “Grand Canyon of the South.” The park also hosts square dances, clogging and Bluegrass and gospel sings. The roots of Dwight Yoakam are in Betsy Layne in Floyd County, one of the few spots on Highway 23 that live music is performed regularly. In Prestonsburg the $7 million MAC is home of the Kentucky Opry, a troupe of singers, musicians, dancers and comics who offer country, bluegrass, oldies and gospel favorites. Individuals and groups can get the whole heritage scoop on the Country Music Trail Tour, a two-year initiative of the Kentucky Department of Travel that promotes a five-day jaunt along the four-lane road. The tour’s itinerary includes big name country music star concerts, and stops at cultural landmarks and venues such as Berea’s craft shops, Renfro Valley and its new Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Developing, building and promoting the infrastructure to support the music heritage along this highway is important, says Sizemore, so that visitors don’t just see a sign that says “so-and-so is from here but they’re gone now. “Instead, they can go to the Paramount and see the Rt. 23 Jamboree,” she says. “They can go to the Kentucky Paveillon, eat ice cream and see it for free, and can go to Breaks Interstate Park and hear bluegrass being performed on weekends. They can see that there are venues here, that there’s a living tradition and it’s not just where people are from.” For further information, contact the
Kentucky Department of Travel (800) 225-8747. Katherine Tandy
Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report. |
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Copyright 1996-2002, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2002, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Splendid
each fall in a patchblock quilt of scarlets, oranges and yellows, Eastern
Kentucky’s Appalachian Mountains are steeped with a country music
tradition begun by immigrants who settled in isolated hills and hollows.
Musicians among them passed singing and playing from generation to generation.