Musicians Are Very ‘Welcome’ At State Center

On a typical Saturday afternoon, you’ll find folks milling about the Tennessee Welcome Center in Bristol looking for brochures on the Great Smoky Mountains, Nashville or Memphis.
But come out on the second Saturday of the month, and you’ll find travelers flat footing and even playing a fiddle.
A few weeks ago, my dad and I dropped into the welcome center and found several dozen folks soaking up the warm hospitality of Bristol.
The music you hear – staged just across I-81 from the Grand Guitar – is part of sharing the heritage of this region, said Jim Carter, the vice president of the Traditional Appalachian Music Heritage Association (TAMHA).
“What we’re doing now is trying to promote Appalachian music as the old timers used to know it,” said Carter, a retired chemical operator.
Every Friday, some of TAMHA’s 50 members can be found making music at 7 p.m. at the Anderson Townhouse on Main Street in downtown Blountville.
Then comes this – the monthly jams at the welcome center. Seated around the fireplace, you’ll find about a dozen TAMHA musicians like John L. VanArsdall. He is known to many as “CanJoe John,” because he plays a one-string instrument called a “canjoe.”
But put a fiddle in this man’s hand. And as I – or even my 3-year-old son – can attest, this man can really play.
And play he does at the welcome center, along with Nina Ketron, the wife of former Sullivan County, Tenn., Schools Superintendent Wallace Ketron. A big fan of mountain music, Nina Ketron showed up last week in Hiltons, Va., jamming on her bass at the Carter Fold’s annual memorial festival.
Come Saturday, Aug. 8, 2-4 p.m., you can also count on finding her at the Tennessee Welcome Center, jamming on tunes like “Rocky Top,” “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and “Tennessee Waltz.”
“Oh, listen,” Ketron said, smiling. “The last time we were there? Let’s see – where was this guy from? He came to Tennessee to buy a boat, and he borrowed a fiddle. He currently lives in New York. And you could tell he was well trained. He did a classical piece. And he was excellent.”
Carter remembered other such impromptu performers, saying, “There are people who come in off the highway. They’re musicians. They pick up an instrument and play along with us.”
Everybody smiles, claps and has a good time.
“And, of course, people coming in off the highway, we always put out chairs for them,” said Carter, who plays guitar, mandolin and fiddle. “The folks who come in seem like they’re delighted we’re in there picking.”
And the ones who may not be delighted? Well, maybe they just grab their maps and go. “If they like what we’re doing, they’ll applaud,” Carter said.
Then he laughed, adding, “We haven’t had food thrown at us.”
For more on TAMHA, call (423) 323-1140 or visit http://www.tamha.org.