We’ve had a gloomy winter in our hometown. Our trip to Florida (link) gave us some respite from the gloom, but we returned to nothing but rain and general overall yuckiness. It seems now, however, that the pattern is changing and we are due for a prolonged stretch of clearer skies and milder temperatures. On Tuesday of this week, I peered out the window of the Man Cave and caught an unfamiliar sight…sunshine, glorious sunshine.
Fortunately, my schedule was wide open. Helen (adorable wife) is still involved with therapy for her healing knee, but she can drive herself leaving me free to roam at will. I quickly checked the schedule for the WDVX Blue Plate Special on the Inside of Knoxville website and made sure that something musical was happening there, then grabbed the camera and jumped into Freddie (my beloved FJ Cruiser).
The plan was to capture as many spring flowers with my camera as I could on my way to the WDVX studio and share them with Easin’ Along readers that may still be shrouded in winter’s gloom. The flowers and flowering trees have bloomed later than usual this year, but when they decided to give us a peek, they came out in radiant colors.
Every year at this time our city hosts a Dogwood Arts Festival to celebrate the arrival of spring and to highlight the beauty and culture of our region. As part of that event, the festival committee designates a few of our city streets as Dogwood Trails due to the abundance of flowers, trees, and gardens found there. I drove to one of those trails.
The tulips seemed particularly bright and colorful this year, and it was not difficult to spot some of them right away. Here are the tulips that popped out for my camera. I especially like white ones shown here plus those at the top of the page.
Not to be outdone, the azaleas appeared at their peak in a variety of colors and blossoms. If all goes well, they should stay with us for a while longer. The few shown here certainly should help to erase some of the hangovers from endless days of gray sky.
Many of the early daffodils have bloomed and disappeared already, but there was one area near the Dogwood Trail covered in bright yellow. The picture taken here is just a small sample of what was in front of me. I estimated that there had to be thousands of flowers in that field.
You can’t have a Dogwood Festival without Dogwoods and this year’s crop seemed eager to show their stuff. Unfortunately, a blight affected the dogwood trees many years ago and resulted in a tree that produced an ugly brown bloom…I have one in my yard. Nevertheless, botanists and researchers have worked diligently to produce strains resistant to the blight, and we are seeing the results now. Here is one such tree.
I could take pictures all morning, but it was time for me and the camera to take in some music. The Blue Plate Special, a live radio show, begins every weekday at noon. The WDVX studio is on the edge of downtown in the Knoxville Visitor Center. I can’t think of a better way to introduce visitors to the region than to showcase the music that is such a large part of what is inside native Tennesseans.
The featured music is predominately Bluegrass, but other forms, including (but not limited to) blues, folk, country, and gospel are featured as well. Often, performers traveling through or performing in the city will come on the show to promote their music or performance at another venue at a later time. There is no charge for the one-hour radio show. I took a seat in the second row.
At exactly 12:00 noon, the studio host, Red Hickey (don’t you love the name), welcomed the modest live crowd and the radio audience to the day’s offering. In return, Red received a vibrant burst of applause from an enthusiastic crowd. Next, she introduced us to the first group, a quartet of young men from nearby Kingsport, Tennessee who called themselves the Smokehouse Crickets. Ms. Hickey asked them about the name’s origin, but I’m not certain we ever received a clear answer. What we did receive was some great music.
I’m not a musician, nor a student of music. I do know if I like it, however, and I like the music of the Smokehouse Crickets a lot. The selections played for us I would call something akin to a lively arrangement of Blues bordering on Modern Country music. The music was heavy on guitar and written by the lead singer. All are talented musicians, and the principal guitar player also broke out his trumpet on one selection. The audience loved it.
There were two groups featured on this day with each playing approximately thirty minutes. The second group, Chris Ross, and the North hailed from the State of Maine and were scheduled to perform that night in Knoxville. They had made it to town that morning after appearing in Nashville the night before. Although they looked a bit road weary, they sounded great and happily told the audience that they were looking forward to being home by the weekend. I would describe their sound as having Country Music overtones and featured an excellent lead guitarist. The lead singer had a very strong voice.
The show ended precisely at 1:00 pm after Red Hickey told us about the shows for the remainder of the week. I parted ways with the crowd a smidgeon early to grab a bite of lunch before time expired on my free two-hour parking permit. Free entertainment and free downtown parking is an unbeatable combination.
My chosen lunch spot is a café within a short walk of the Visitor Center called NotWatson’s, named after a department store (Watsons) that closed many years ago in the same building.
I’ll share my hot and tasty Philly Cheesesteak sandwich and fries with you as you enjoy a snippet of video from the Smokehouse Crickets’ performance at the Blue Plate Special (below). I’ve even placed a few tulips on the table. 
Tulips for the table
It’s a beautiful day for Easin’ Along.
