Metro Pulse/Music/Eye on the Scene

Knoxville—The Music

Our city has been turning up a bit in popular music of late, with the name mentioned in a couple of recently released songs.

On The Donnas' new album, Spend the Night, lead singer Donna A. laments about not getting laid by a Knoxville High student on "I Don't Care (So There)." Hmm. Emma would love to know the details that inspired the song, but suspects it will remain in the realm of speculation. (For a review of Spend the Night, check out Platters.)

Mark Knopfler gives a little more back story on "Daddy's Gone To Knoxville," a cut off his recent release, The Ragpicker's Dream.

The song has a man off trying to make some money, going down the Gallatin Road, Crossville Track, and Natchez Trace, and finally down that Knoxville Road.

On his website, www.mark-knopfler-news.co.uk, Knopfler explains the song: "...It follows a theme I've always been interested in, which is following a place where people are familiar with the names, and looking at it from the point of view of the past. Just the last few years, these places have boomed. The Gallatin Road in the first verse—you see the traffic reports in the States and you see the rush-hour traffic. On screen they'll be saying 'The Gallatin Road is very heavy, there's an overturned truck on Exit 9'—well, that was once just a little track, and not very long ago either. The development is frightening, and you start to wonder how long the wilderness is going to hold out against all this civilization. And I was thinking about Chet Atkins and his early music life, I think that was on my mind too, the endless backward and forward movement. So again I was using geography from Tennessee and putting it back a few decades into a much more innocent era."

Better Than A Rubber Chicken

Many years ago in a land called Knoxville, Gay Street was the place to go for your holiday shopping. But, a group of evil road builders were jealous of all the happy downtown merchants. So, they devised a devious plan to siphon all those people away from the city's heart and soul. With a bunch of money from the federal government, they built a great big road through the middle of Knoxville. And they convinced the residents that they would be much happier if they bought a car and followed the road. They could get off wherever they wanted, but the important thing was to drive on to the road. Sadly, most of them believed that they would be happier somewhere else and they drove away.

OK, so maybe it wasn't that simple. At one time, Gay Street most certainly was the place where everyone went to buy things. But downtown's not completely dead as a place for good shopping. In fact, you'll probably find the coolest and most original gifts downtown this year at Yee-Haw Industries, which is hosting its annual "Art For The People" Holiday Show. The letter press, located at 413 S. Gay St., has made a name for itself doing concert and album art work for the likes of Lucinda Williams, Southern Culture on the Skids, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Moe Tucker, the Old 97's, Widespread Panic, and others. Their most recent work is the CD cover of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle Be Unbroken Vol. III, featuring a drawing of Mother Maybelle. The shop's annual show draws on the talents of more than 25 regional artists who will sell work you're not going to find anywhere else in the world, all of it handmade: baby blankets, paper, illustrations, jewelry, photographs, gum-wrapper art, lampshades, greeting cards, and many other weird and cool things. The show opens this Friday, Nov. 22, with a reception from 3 until well after dark. Jennie & Richie Stearns, folk-country artists from Ithaca, N.Y., will perform. The holiday show will run through Dec. 24. Every Friday night there'll be entertainment, including poetry and prose readings, the Gypsy Hands belly dancers, an Appalshop film, and a David Sedaris play performed by Actors Co-op. For more info, check out www.yeehawindustries.com. Also, during your holiday shopping, don't forget the recently opened Village Marketplace gift shop in Market Square, which sells fairly traded crafts from around the world. And, of course, the Old City has some great shops, including Earth to Old City, Legacy, and a number of antique shops on Jackson Avenue.

Go.

Thursday: Good radio is a Constitutional right! Go to the First Amendment Radio (90.9 FM) benefit at Blue Cats, with the fierce rock of The American Plague and Glass Joe.

Friday: Smokin' Dave and the Premo Dopes will re-release Huh? with a smoking party at Blue Cats.

Saturday: Go see the Dickens-inspired musical classic Oliver! at Clarence Brown Theatre.

Sunday: Why pay $50 to see an opera show when you can go to Amahl and the Night Visitors at Westminster Presbyterian Church for free?

Monday: Fast in preparation for Thanksgiving.

Tuesday: Smoke pot and watch three members of Gran Torino perform Grateful Dead tunes at Blue Cats. Tell 'em Emma said it was OK.

Wednesday: Get in touch with your inner lover with some salsa and Latin jazz by The 9 Amigos at 4620.

—Emma "None for me, thanks" Poptart with Joe Tarr