MyLovelyTN

Highlighting the rich history, culture, and geography of Tennessee. Anything past and present from Roan Mountain to Mud Island!

[mylovelytn]

Check out this stunning video of Great Smoky Mountains National Park from the More Than Just Parks project. MTJP has set out to create such videos in all of the 59 national parks in an effort "to effect a greater awareness of the treasures that reside within America's National Parks". You can help by donating to the general effort or even sponsoring a whole park!

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Scored a copy of the newest #tennessee blue book at this weekends #hack4change #nashville

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I wonder I the tobacco is as old as the barn. Found near Springfield, TN. #tennessee #fall #barn

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Old tobacco barn near Springfield, TN. #tennessee #fall #barn

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Replicas of the Niña and Pinta are in Chattanooga till October 20th! Both were built in Brazil by shipbuilders who still craft ships in the fashion of the Portuguese Caravels like the Niña and Pinta. They are amazingly small for sea travel but are the most historically accurate ever built. The Columbus Foundation crew the ships and sail them 10 months out of the year to various ports for educational purposes. Go see them!

[mylovelytn]

Pretty excited to try this establishment out tonight: Pepperfire! They are part of the Nashville Style Hot Chicken family. I've lived just around the corner from them ever since they opened. I hope I'm proven foolish tonight for taking this long to try it!

[mylovelytn]

Nashville City Cemetery // This cemetery is the oldest in Nashville. Today it is also a city park and certified arboretum with five of the largest species of tree within its walls.

[mylovelytn]

Cortelia Clark: Grammy in the Street

Clark was born in Chicago, Illinois but moved to Nashville as a teenager and worked in a broom factory. Shortly after arriving a blind man taught him how to play guitar. This is interesting twist in his story because at some point in his life, Clark also became blind. An Associated Press article quotes him as saying hew went blind due to an operation about 15 years before which would put his age in the late 40s. Other publications say he was blind since the age of 25. Whatever the fact may be, the point is Clark had been blind a long time prior to this unbelievable point in his life.

Clark began signing for people during World War II as they came to theaters in Downtown Nashville. By the mid 1960s he could often be found  along 5th Av across from the Arcade playing blues and selling shopping bags in front of Woolworth's department store. In a good week Clark could make up to $30. It was at this spot in 1966 that Mike Weesner, a 25 year old Vanderbilt graduate student, discovered Clark for the second time in his life. 

Weesner remembered from his years as a young boy that he would make his mom take him "to hear the blind man sing" whenever they came downtown. Now, Weesner owned his own music publishing firm and recorded a sample of Clark's music. He took that recording to RCA where Elvis' producer, Felton Jarvis, heard the music and agreed to help produce a record of Clark's music. However, the album wasn't cut in a studio. The decision was made to record live on the street out in front of the Pancake Pantry on 21st Av in the Hillsboro neighborhood of Nashville. The first track of the album is an interview in which Clark gives a short oral autobiography. The album was named Blues in the Street. Samples of the album can be heard through that link.

After being released, the album sold less than 1,000 copies of which Clark received only three-fourths of a cent for each unit sold. None the less, RCA submitted the album for the category of Folk in the 1967 Grammy Awards. Blues in the Street won the Grammy over such names as Pete Seegar, Leadbelly, and Peter, Paul and Mary. The win made Clark the first musician from Nashville to win a Grammy for folk music. Despite this Clark never saw much sustained fame after the initial national attention. Two months after winning he was back on the streets singing blues and selling shopping bags. That didn't bother Clark at all though. He told the Tennessean "The Grammy isn't present to the one with the most sales...It is presented, simply, to the best."

Tragically, only a few years later, Clark's house on Jefferson Street burned down while he was inside after a kerosene heater exploded. The injuries he suffered took his life six weeks later on Christmas Eve 1969. Only a few people including the priest and a TV cameraman attended his funeral. Since his death a few other musicians have paid tribute to Clark in song. The first being songwriter Mickey Newbury with his song simply titled "Cortelia Clark".

Sources:

Zepp, George R. "Street Blues Nets Dimes and a Grammy Award." Hidden History of Nashville. Charleston, SC: History, 2009. 21-23. Print.

 Cooper, Peter. "Peter Cooper On Music: Cortelia Clark’s Legend Lives on."Tennessean.com. The Tennessean, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

St. Jospeh News-Press - March 5, 1967

Planar, Lindsay. "AllMusic." AllMusic.com. AllMusic, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

Crowdsourced. "Cortelia Clark." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2013.

[mylovelytn]

Found this little beauty today on a hike with my buddy @nkblot in Edwin Warner Park. It’s a Spotted Touch-me-not. Anecdotally, the sap from the stem relieves poison ivy and nettle stings. Scientifically, the sap has been proven to treat athlete’s foot as a fungicide. #tennessee #nashville #wildflower

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Tennesse Wedding near Lascassas, TN. #tennessee #wedding

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Happy horses in Cades Cove. #gsmnp #cadescove #tennessee

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Cable Mill in Cades Cove. #gsmnp #tennessee #cadescove

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Look what we found today: Grotto Falls in the Roaring Fork area of GSMNP. Photo credit @nonchalantphoto #roaringfork #gsmnp #tennessee

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The view is finally clearing up a bit in Townsend. Looking forward to to Roaring Fork and maybe more Cades Cove tomorrow. #gsmnp #tennessee #townsend

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Great Smokey Mountains Natn'l Park near Cades Cove. #cadescove #gsmnp #tennessee

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This is what happens when history comes to Pigeon Forge: you get a building shaped like the Titanic. Well half the Titanic. Toured the museum this morning of of original Titanic and White Star Line items. #pigeonforge #titanic #tennessee

[mylovelytn]

Cades Cove in Great Smokey Mtns NP. Just a short trip into the area today. May come back during the weekend.