Barefoot Pete goes to
The Tennessee Fall Homecoming FestivalOctober 2002
There's a wonderful festival every year called the Tennessee Fall Homecoming Festival. It's held at the Museum of Appalachia near Norris, Tennessee the second weekend of October. Norris is about 15 miles north of Knoxville just off I-75. The festival runs from Wednesday through Sunday. I usually drive up on Wednesday. I stay camp at the Volunteer Park Family Campground one exit south of the festival. It's a really nice place owned by a couple really great people, Tom and Sue. They bend over backwards to make festival goers welcome. After you've stayed there you'll be part of our family.
How to get to the campground:
Volunteer Park Family Campground (formerly known as Jellystone Park Camp Resort) is just off I-75 about 10 miles north of Knoxville. Take the Racoon Valley Road (Hwy 170) exit and head west. You'll soon see the park on the south side of the road. Turn south on Diggs Gap Road to get to the entrance. The address of the park is 9514 Diggs Gap Road, Heiskell, TN 37754 and their phone number is 865-938-6600. Tell them Barefoot Pete the bass player sent you.The festival features musicians and craftsmen from all over with emphasis on old-time and bluegrass music and traditional crafts. There are hundreds of performers performing in many locations throughout the museum grounds. The museum grounds is a living museum with many historical buildings brought in from all over the surrounding area. You'll get a good idea of what pioneer life was like. There are log houses, an old log school, an old log church, an old mill house, a bunch of over-hang barns, and lots of other interesting buildings. There's a couple big buildings full of old tools and other artifacts. The festival also features sourghum squeezing, old tractors, hit-and-miss engines... you name it and you'll probably see it here.
For official information about The Tennessee Fall Homecoming at the Museum of Appalachia visit their web site.
Here's some pictures of the campground and a couple pictures from the festival. I didn't have much time to take pictures at the festival so you'll just have to come to find out how wonderful it is for yourself.
Here's a picture of the entrance sign at our campground. When you get here turn in!
This is the campground store Every morning we all gather for breakfast served by efficient waitresses. Then in the evening we all gather for a delicious dinner prepared with love by the never tiring kitchen staff, also known as Sue.
Oh, look! Here's one of the efficient waitresses now...
Look quick.... it's one of those rare times she has a smile on her face. This is actually Alice MacKay. She was a performer on the National Barn Dance in Chicago WAAAAAAAY back in the 1930s. She's also one of my oldest and dearest friends. And actually, she does smile a lot.
Volunteer Park is a beautiful campground with lots of trees. It was raining when I took this picture, hence the water running down the road.
This is my camper nestled in the pines. Sounds almost like there's a song in there somewhere. Let's see... "There's a camper in the pines..."
Every night we have a jam session in the rec hall. We have a lot of really talented veteran performers as well as a lot of really talented beginning musicians. All musicians of all level of abilities are welcome to come and play. That's my friend Jim Kaufman on the right.
Oh look! A barefoot boy! This is my friend Noah that I met at the campground. He's a fun guy to hang around with. He does get a bit silly at times, something that I'd NEVER do! Noah wants to learn to play the guitar. I think he looks more like a fiddle player...
Here's Noah being serious. That doesn't seem to happen too often, at least when he's around me.
This is the Stewart Family Band. Helen Stewart is sitting on the left playing the accordian. That's Bill Steward playing the fiddle. Bill and Helen met when they were performers at the Grand Ole Opry almost 50 years ago. He's one of the smoothest fiddlers that I've ever heard. Then there's Mark Stewart and his wife Judy, what a voice! On the right is Kent Stewart. In the back row is the bass player from the museum's house band substituting for me. I was supposed to be playing this set with them but I got there a few minutes too late. Of course if it was me playing then I wouldn't have been able to take this picture. I did get to play four sets with them. During one of the sets, my "fan club" stood in front of the stage acting as silly as they could trying to get me to crack up and lose control of my playing. They were wasting their time. With my superior skills I was able to totally ignore them...
Here's Ruth Hawkins and Lillian Baker, A.K.A. the Hammer Sisters, listening to a jam session in the performers lounge. They travel all the way from southwest Missouri to perform at the festival each year. Ruth plays genuine old-time fiddle and Lillian plays guitar. They sing a variety of songs with wonderful sibling harmony. Wait til you hear Gravy on a Bucket Lid! This picture was taken on Sunday afternoon when we were all tired from a long weekend.
I'll try to take some more pictures at the festival next time I'm there. In the mean time, I guess you'll just have to go to the festival yourself to see how great it is.
Oh look! Another barefoot boy!
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