Renfro Valley, Tennessee - Home of Kentucky Music

We arrived in Renfro Valley near Mt. Vernon, KY on Thursday. We couldn't post the blog until today because the local WiFi was too weak and we couldn't hardly get enough bars on the air card to download email in the valley. We had to wait until we got to Lexington where we had better Internet connectivity.

Renfro Valley is the home of Kentucky Country Music. For seventy years now country musicians have come here to perform. It was a real treat to listen to extremely talented musicians pay tribute to not only country music, but all different genres of music.

The Kentucky Music Hall of Fame is located nearby. This hall of fame is well worth the time to visit. It honors Kentucky singers, song writers, performers and others who made significant contributions to music. Names such as Loretta Lynn, Dottie Rambo, John Michael Montgomery, Ricky Skaggs, and the Everly Brothers are just a few inductees to the hall of fame.

Renfro Valley is set up like an old timey village with many historic buildings that are located here or were brought in for display. There is a chapel and old school house located near the parking lot followed by numerous shops and the New Barn where big name performers come for concerts.

The Old Barn hosts shows several nights a week and often two shows a night on weekends. It is the current location of the Barn Dance that has been held here continuously now for seventy years. All four of the shows we attended were top notch with a variety of performers and types of music. It was truely enjoyable.
The bus above belongs to Ronnie Milsap who was in Renfro Valley for a concert in the New Barn.


Many of the buildings appear to have been here for decades. The Administrative building houses the offices for Renfro Valley.
This old mill takes you back to a time when things were done much differently.

Off to the east of the Mill and the Old Barn is BitterSweet Village. This village of old cabins house displays of frontier living.

Visiting the village is like taking a step back in time.

The general store, cobbler's shop, broom shop, farrier's shop, woodwright's shop, loom house and the doctor's home have informative displays.

The spring-pole lathe was operated by foot power. The bent over pole overhead pulled a cord wrapped around the lathe back up after the woodwright pressed down with his foot.

This display shows how large logs were squared into timbers using a crosscut saw. One worker pulled from above and another pulled from below.

The Loom House displays several looms that show how yarn was made into cloth.

Sunday morning was time for the Gathering. This performance turns attention toward spiritual matters. Members of the audience were invited to form a choir on stage. Several of us joined this choir as we sang some old hymns. A nondenominational service was held shortly after.

"I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me."

Psalm 13:6

Thus ended our Smokey Mountain tour and its twenty-two HitchHiker fifth wheels headed off. At least seven of those campers have come up to Lexington, KY to the Kentucky Horse Park.