Nashville, Tennessee

Had a great time in Nashville, visited honky tonks, ate super spicy Nashville chicken, and went to the Grand Ole Opry, the "Mother Church of Country Music". We saw one of my favourite bands Old Crow Medicine Show. Here are some of my favourite songs of theirs:

Cumberland Gap

The Cumberland Gap is where three states meet: Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. It has served as a pass through the Cumberland mountains for modern travellers, native tribes, frontiersmen and civil war troops. There is a beautiful National Park with a great view of the three states.

On the Kentucky bourbon trail

What is straight Kentucky bourbon? As we were told multiple times yesterday, federal law states that it must be: 
- made in Kentucky
- aged in a new charred American white oak barrel
- be at least 51% corn (the rest is usually rye and barley)
- be bottled at at least 80 proof.

We visited three big distilleries around Lawrenceburg: Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey. We also stopped by Corsair, a newer and smaller craft distillery. The pick of the whiskies we tried? Corsair's triple smoked...(and its not even a bourbon it's a scotch style whiskey).

If you ever find yourself on the Kentucky bourbon trail, make sure you bring lots of inbetween drinks*. They don't pour much at the distilleries and they don't have on-licences.

Felice Brothers - Whiskey in my Whiskey

*panamericangladiators recommend that you convince someone else to sober drive, freeing yourself up to get your drink on.

Justified

Driving to Kentucky today. There is a small chance we may swing by half a dozen whiskey distilleries...

We are driving through the Cumberland Gap and Harlan County on our way to Lexington. Anyone familiar with the show Justified will know these areas, as well as this band which provides the theme track.

Gangstagrass is a rap/bluegrass group, here they are sampling a 1930's song by Jimmie Rogers "Pistol Packin' Papa".

Remember acid rain?

Spent a day checking out the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were lucky to get the van to the summit of Clingman's Dome as the snow was waist high on the sides of the road. Trisna was lucky to walk the kilometre up to the true summit as she was wearing ugg boots. Sean was lucky to not get knocked out when he threw a snowball at me, but missed and hit a husband and wife couple. From the top we could look east into North Carolina and west into Tennessee. Stunning views. 

Remember acid rain? It sounds pretty "nineties" now, and may have dropped off the radar lately, but it is still having an impact here. From the summit you can see that thousands of the trees are dying as the precipitation is 5-10 times more acidic than it should naturally be. This impacts soils, streams, plants and animals. Acid rain is caused by pollution from vehicles, industry and power generation being taken up by clouds and falling back to the earth with snow and rain.

That old time mountain music

The Blue Ridge Mountains are considered the birthplace of American folk music. English and Irish folk music (fiddles, dancing) combined with African rhythms (banjoes, drums) to create music known today as traditional/folk/bluegrass music. These hills are still producing amazing music, and are well worth a trip if you want to soak it all in. We stopped in at the Blue Ridge Music Center - an excellent museum which chronicles the musical history of the region. Anywho- this is my jam:

Greensky Bluegrass- Demons

Blue Ridge Mountains

Some photos from our drive today through Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Check out them autumn colours...