Everly Brothers Park

Touching tributes by musical icons endear this Bearden park

If you haven’t noticed, there is a small pocket park in Bearden that celebrates two of the most cherished performers of rock and roll history.

Phil (left) and Don Everly. (Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina.)

It’s no hyperbole to say that without the Everly Brothers there might have been no Beatles, Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel and a host of other legendary bands and musicians. You don’t have to take my word for it. You can visit this public space, formerly the site of a gas station and before that a short-lived roadside amusement park, at the corner of Kingston Pike and Forest Park Boulevard. You’ll find inscriptions by stars testifying how the Everlys influenced their songwriting and careers. It’s a genuine “Who’s Who” of the music world.

The park’s champion has been Duane Grieve, a local architect, director of the East Tennessee Community Design Center, and a former City Councilman. Grieve was graciously helped by fellow Bearden Village Council members Terry Faulkner and Dennis Owen, as well as Legacy Parks Foundation, and others.

The park idea took a momentous step forward when Grieve befriended Graham Nash, the British singer and songwriter with Crosby, Stills & Nash, when he performed at the Bijou Theatre several years ago. Citing the Everly Brothers as a pivotal influence, Nash said, “their vocal harmonies changed my life unbelievably so. I wanted to honor that feeling and I am still honoring that feeling.”

Graham Nash at Everly Brothers Park dedication, 2023. (KHP.)

Nash pledged to help with the project by contacting friends and fellow musicians to pen personal tributes that would form permanent features of the park. Amazingly, within a few weeks heartfelt tributes came flooding into Grieve’s email box.

In all, 14 tributes are now embedded in granite on the park’s walkway, comprising a staggering list of iconic performers: Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Joan Baez, Carole King, Brian Wilson, Elton John, Dolly Parton, and others.

So, how does a tribute park for the Everly Brothers end up in Bearden of all places? Originally from Kentucky, Ike and Margaret Everly and their two boys, Don (1937-2021) and Phil (1939-2014), grew up in Iowa, but moved to Knoxville in early 1953. Learning to become a barber here, Ike still played guitar while Margaret got a job at a beauty shop on Chambliss Street in Bearden. She also played stand-up bass. As a family band, they were attracted here by the reputation of WROL radio.

The Everlys chose to live on the west side of town, briefly in a small house on Sutherland Avenue, and then in a house divided into apartments on Scenic Drive in Sequoyah Hills. The boys attended West High School, where they were noticed for their distinctive dress sense and style (apparently, Don once ran into trouble with the football coach for wearing his hair too long). The brothers were outgoing and appeared in several social newspaper columns during their time there. However, only a photo of Phil made it into the school yearbook.

Under the stage name of The Everly Family, they played together locally a few times. In December 1953, they performed at the Milk Fund, an event organized by the Knoxville Journal, featuring “Cas Walker’s day on the street for charity.” They played on the sidewalk outside the Journal Building on Gay Street during the daytime, as support for an evening concert featuring the Pride of the Southland and Archie Campbell at the Tennessee Theatre. Soon after, with encouragement by their parents, Don and Phil began performing locally as a duo.

A trip down to Dugout Doug’s, the self-styled “Campus Record Store” on Cumberland Avenue proved to be memorable. They later said that they discovered rock and roll there after buying a Bo Diddly record. One day at the Tennessee Valley Fair, they also met former Knoxville guitarist Chet Atkins, who by then was already established as an influential producer in Nashville. With his encouragement, it wouldn’t be long before they moved to the state capital and began their recording career.

But before they did, one Knoxvillian was less impressed with their conversion to the new craze of rock and roll. Music impresario Cas Walker reportedly fired them from performing their new songs on WROL radio. It may have been pivotal in the brothers’ decision to leave Knoxville.

The duo began recording songs in Nashville 1956, but that summer they were back in East Tennessee playing at Maryville’s annual Hillbilly Homecoming celebration, billed as “country music recording artists” from Kentucky. Their first recorded first single, “Bye Bye Love,” written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (who also wrote “Rocky Top”) topped several charts the following year.

The Everlys also penned their own songs – their biggest single hit, “Cathy’s Clown,” written by Don in 1960, was based on his memory of a disappointing romance at West High School. Their last show in Knoxville appears to have been at the Tennessee Theatre in 1998.

Tennessee Music Pathways dedication, 2022. (KHP.)

In addition to music luminaries such as Graham Nash, Everly Brothers Park, which opened in 2019, has also been visited by Phil Everly’s widow, Patty, and the couple’s children. During a special ceremony in 2022, the family joined in the unveiling of a new sign when the park became a site on the Tennessee Music Pathways program.

by Paul James

Note: This article first appeared in West Knoxville Lifestyle magazine, March 2025.