Blog Archives

Because, for decades he always seemed to be the same age, perhaps 43, lanky, energetic, youthful Bruce Wheeler never seemed likely to leave us any time soon, but we regret that he has. He was really 84, and this past […]

THE MYSTERIES OF A KNOXVILLE THANKSGIVING It’s supposedly a simple holiday, dating back to 1621, and the Pilgrims, who sought simplicity. But most sources claim that despite Tennessee’s plenitude of wild turkeys and pumpkins for pie, we didn’t celebrate the […]

OPERA’S DEBUT IN KNOXVILLE Both locals and newcomers tend to jump to the same conclusion: that Knoxville, whose founders were surely country-music or gospel fans if they knew anything about music at all, decided at some point—in recent years, of […]

A recent article in the News-Sentinel about Vol “Traditions” made me realize that my old alma mater’s traditions are constantly changing, and some are rather new. Most of those traditions listed were not things I knew about when I was at that […]

THE ROLE A COMPLEX CITY PLAYED IN A DIRECTOR’S CAREER Knoxville’s primary contribution to the creation of Hollywood’s film industry has gotten more attention recently with the publication of a thick and well-received biography by Irish scholar Gwenda Young, called Hollywood’s […]

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED HERE IN THE SUMMER OF 1937? It’s July, and it’s hot. Don’t you wish there were a place nearby where you could buy some cold beer and then take your clothes off and dance in the woods? […]

ANCIENT TALES OF OUR SPANISH-SPEAKING POLICE CHIEF ARE AT LEAST PARTLY TRUE Knoxville has traditionally emphasized its Scots-Irish origins, but when we think of Knoxville’s first century, it’s hard to deny an intriguing thread of the Mediterranean. John Sevier’s ancestors […]

SOME AWKWARD LATE-CAREER DRAMA FOR TWO OLD PROS It’s baseball season, and one of those national movie channels has been showing an old baseball movie that raises an interesting question about the relationship of a couple of once-famous Knoxvillians. After […]

The former Knoxville Singing Group whose influence crossed genres in unexpected ways. One Black musical group has been cited by multiple well-known songwriters as an important inspiration for some of the most emblematic national and international hit songs of the […]