Paramount Bristol presents 100 Year Salute to Nat King Cole
September 16, 2019 DEBRA MCCOWN THOMAS John Pizzarelli grew up in a home steeped in music. His first instrument was a tenor banjo, which he was taught by his great-uncle starting at age 6. To the observation that jazz might not be the most familiar musical genre in...
Bristol Rhythm & Roots Reunion has plenty of familiar and famous faces
September 15, 2019 BY TOM NETHERLAND | SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER Somewhere down on State Street awaken the ghosts of Jimmie Rodgers and Maybelle Carter astride alongside A.P. and Sara Carter. Look close. Listen closer. Feel their presence most profoundly in the...
Center Stage: Bill Anderson is still daring to be different at age 81
September 05, 2019 TOM NETHERLAND | SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER A vast array of bright lights and country music marks the long and winding career of country legend Bill Anderson. Distinct of voice and song, Anderson at 81 remains as active as when he began more than...
In Southern Appalachia, Searching for the Big Bang of Country Music
August 19, 2019 Colleen Creamer While the rest of America was roaring to jazz during the ’20s, in a small corner of the South, where back roads snake through early-morning mist and porches are used for melody-making as much as sitting inrockingchairs, another form of...
Short Takes: Music Notes
August 15, 2019 TOM NETHERLAND SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER Music Notes See Mark O’Connor’s An Appalachian Christmas at Bristol’s Paramount at 7 p.m. Dec. 1. Tickets, from $32 to $60, go on sale at noon Friday. A multiple Grammy winner, O’Connor’s prodigious work on...
Short Takes: All-American celebration with Letters from Home: Revisiting Patriotism
August 01, 2019 Tab Benoit by Tom Netherland | Special to the Herald Courier When B.B. King spoke or played the blues, people listened. Well, listen up. The late king of the blues said “If you really want to know how to play the blues, watch Tab Benoit.” Now’s your...
Short Takes: Music in July, Fun Fest, more
July 11, 2019 TOM NETHERLAND | SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER Music Notes “I love those bright lights and country music.” So goes the country classic by Bill Anderson. Hear the Country Music Hall of Fame member sing that and many more when he makes his career-first...
Get the Led Out coming to Paramount Bristol
June 23, 2019 Get the Led Out coming to Paramount Bristol DEBRA MCCOWN THOMAS When Paul Sinclair was growing up in the 1970s, it was the spirit of the times: everybody wanted to be a rock star. It was in that era of intense musical creativity that he and friend Paul...
Donations help Paramount get new lights, but other needed expenses loom
June 09, 2019 BY LEIF GREISS | BRISTOL HERALD COURIER BRISTOL, Tenn. — After years of dealing with an older, costly and failing lighting system the Paramount Performing Arts Center has updated its lights. The Paramount has experienced tremendous growth in over the...
Paramount Center will host advance Ken Burns COUNTRY MUSIC screening
May 19, 2019 BRISTOL HERALD COURIER East Tennessee PBS, in partnership with the Paramount Center for the Arts and ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music program, will present an advance screening of Ken Burns’ “Country Music.” Burns kicked off a promotional...