520 Etc.: Jon Worley: Diary of a Folk Musician
Knoxvillian’s historically have had a rough time coming to grips with the culture that takes root underneath its own nose. Roy Acuff said it best, “Knoxville is a great place to come from, but a real shitty place to die.” All we need do is look back on the last 15 or so years and ask ourselves what happened to all the great Knoxville bands. The V-Roys, the Judy Bats, Super Drag, Left Foot Down, to name a few, have gone through the process of honing their musical chops on what I consider to be the hardest circuit in the Southeast, only to be ground on down by the leftover lingering doubts and strife that washes over musicians from Knoxville.
Photos by Amber Cornett
This town has the odd distinction of being the birthplace, if not the resting place, of modern music, in that the musical breed that comes from this town has an all too familiar tinge to it. Now I don’t want to go so far as to say the town is cursed or anything like that, but it sure is awfully funny. I guess you could say it’s a little like the town prophet syndrome. Anyone who decides to stick up their head in the K-town scene is subject to the review and criticism of a town who is in such a state of trying to be a big city that anything that is locally grown or created is seen as something Podunk and not worthy of consideration. In other words, the last town to recognize it has a prophet is the town that the prophet comes from.
I don’t want to seem overly melodramatic or even whiney, but for every venue with an open stage at any given time in Knoxville, there are approximately 300 to 400 musicians within a hundred mile radius vying for that stage space. This translates into a devaluation of the acts that are here and at the same time makes this one of the most musically competitive scenes in the country. To rise to the forefront of the K-town music scene, you have to figuratively pull a gaggle of flaming monkeys out of your ass and throw them through a few burning rings of fire for dramatic effect.
This has been the scene that I have flourished in and am proud to come from. I have figuratively and literally brushed my teeth with bob wire and crawled on my belly through the broken glass of the music scene in K-town for the last seven years like some musical Job wondering when my ship is gonna come. I have come to the conclusion that it’s already here, and I am just waiting on the rest of Knoxville to realize that the ship has been at port for the last 20 years.
It’s high time that Knoxville realizes that we as a culture have something extremely significant and poignant to say to the world.
In a time when the world is as volatile, violent and depressing as it has become, the musicians in K-town have held down the fort and battened down the hatches. We have a musical spirit that stands in contrast and in the face of a depressing grimy existence. We have been the bastions of inner freedom and built a safe place for the human spirit to flourish in a scene that can pull you down to the farthest depths of human existence, if you let it.
Jon Worley
Notes from the K-town underground:
Cornbred Blues Band and Solo performances
Wednesday, July 26
Manhattan’s
solo performance
10 pm
Friday, July 28
the Comedy Zone Showtime unconfirmed
Saturday, July 29
Sassy Ann’s All-star Cornbred Birthday Jam
10 pm
Sunday, July 30
Corner Lounge Poetry Slam benefit
7 pm