Mark your calendar for next Labor Day Weekend 2018!
This year's Long Journey Home Festival Theme is "Black Smoke a Risin' and it Surely is a Train." Temple Reece's mural depicting the historic Lopsided 3 Train is ready to be unveiled! For a preview, come by Johnson County Center for the Arts. Click below for your downloadable event schedule and map:
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Thursday, August 30th, Kick off Dinner and Dance
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Johnson County Center for the Arts
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The 2016 Long Journey Home Art Show
A sampling from the 2016 Tennessee Sunrise quilt show
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Memories from 2017:
If you couldn't be with us, you missed a great time. While we plan for this year's celebration, enjoy a of the few sites and sounds that were captured on September 2nd and 3rd, 2016.
Memories from 2016
At the Clarence "Tom" Ashley Homeplace, we heard Kenny Price and Jerry Moses perform in Tom's signature Clawhammer banjo style. |
The culmination of the day was the open jam at the Fred Price Homeplace where we enjoyed soup beans and cornbread, apple butter biscuits and music ringing through the hills |
Tom Ashley, Fred Price, and Clint Howard introduced the young Doc Watson to the world.
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The 2016 mural and celebration honored Fred Price and Clint Howard. Fred and Clint, along with Tom Ashley made up the trio that was discovered by folklorist, Ralph Rinzler in the early ‘60s. They knew a good guitar picker playing on the street over around Boone at the time by the name of Doc Watson. Doc didn’t even own an acoustic guitar at the time, as he was focused on more modern music. With some direction from Rinzler, the newly formed group hit the road. They received rave reviews from coast to coast. Their album, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashleys was recently placed on the National Recording Registry.
Later, Fred and Clint with sons, Kenny and Clarence would record the Ballad of Finley Preston. The album told the story of the last legal hanging in Tennessee, which happened in the vicinity of the Courthouse. The late great folklorist, Joe Wilson, native son of Johnson County and National Heritage Fellow, produced the album, just number 009 on the Rounder record label.
"Everyone who knew Fred and Clint remembers not only their music, but their legacy of kindness and humility. They were good people who lived authentically, and their music had a way of putting us in touch with the most decent part of ourselves."
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST ANNUAL LONG JOURNEY HOME 2015
The infamous Tom Dula was captured in Doe Creek, off Highway 67 in the Pandora Commuinty by Colonel James Grayson and a posse. The song made famous by the Kingston trio was first recorded by Grayson's nephew, Blind Banmon Grayson in the late '20s. Tom Dooley is only one of many murder ballads that can be found in the Southern Appalachian repertoire. Along with Tom Dooley, GB Grayson wrote and recorded many of the Blugrass and Old Time standards we know and love today.
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You can drive by Clint Howard's family farm, where it is likely that the monumental album "Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's" was recorded, featuring Clarence "Tom" Ashley, the young and as yet unknown Doc Watson, Clint Howard, and Fred Price.
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The Fred Price Homeplace still stands as well, where one of the world's smoothest fiddlers farmed, worked, and lived a humble, but satisfying life of music and connection to the land.