The sheer number of famous persons and musicians who graced the stage of the Ryman until it closed in 1974, was saved from the wrecking ball, and reopened as a tourist attraction and smaller concert venue is simply staggering here are some of the famous faces who were hired by Mrs. Naff until she retired in 1955. And there were many more. Musically, the 1940s were important because the Grand Ole Opry moved the the Ryman and... Read more
The story of the Ryman auditorium is itself fascinating, never mind all the famous musicians, entertainers, politicians magicians and more trapsed onto the stage of that cathedral, first of Gospel preaching and then later of country and bluegrass music, and even later of rock n’ roll. Today its in the middle of downtown Nashville, but it wasn’t always so. It began as the Union Gospel Tabernacle with the Rev. Sam Jones as its stem-winding preacher. But in fact the tabernacle... Read more
blog: http://www.allanbevere.com/2023/02/the-wesleyan-way-revival-real-or.html Read more
There were some pleasant surprises of acts I was not very familiar with, like Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes—a really bluesy singer… Or Aloe Blacc, who I really like as an R+B and soul singer….. I also really liked Hozier, another Irish artist, who looked like Jesus and not accidentally, his bit hit is Take Me to Church…. Also excellent was Babyface, primarily known as a producer and songwriter for other artists like Boys to Men, but he was excellent... Read more
For my money the best, and most surprising of the older headliner acts was Blondie, who I had never seen live. She’s 76 and still rocking hard…. amazing! Their video graphics were good, this one was when they were playing heart of glass. But also excellent were headliners like Train, as Pat Moynahan has still got a great voice, and besides their big hits like Soul Sister and Drops of Jupiter, they did some excellent covers of Steve Miller’s Space... Read more
Of the larger music festivals in America, the Bourbon and Beyond Festival has over the last several years emerged as the very best. Last year 140,000 came to this festival, and I doubt it was less this year, which features not only classic rock, but all sorts of recent rock artists, country artists old and new, bluegrass artists, and crossover artists like Billy Strings, Blues artists like Buddy Guy, some Hip Hop artists, some r+b artists, some wild cards (this... Read more
Of course you expect when you go to the zoo, you expect to see lions and tigers and bears, oh my! But maybe not this bear….. This polar bear was beautiful but suffering in the heat. He should have been in a cooler enclosed area hopefully with snow, and speaking of snow, a snow leopard— The tiger and the lioness seemed to be doing fine in the Louisville heat and humidity. I must confess to loving the meerkats…. I wish... Read more
The Louisville Zoo, located just off Watterson Expressway, has got a lot of animals and birds, well arranged by regions and types, and the nice thing is they are not so far away that you can’t get close to them and get good shots. There are places where non-glare glass is not used, unfortunately which makes picture taking more difficult. All and all, I would give this zoo good ratings. So let see what there is to see, starting perhaps... Read more
Out in the middle of nowhere in Franklin County Kentucky is a Sculpture Park, in a bunch of open fields. Honestly this whole scenario is almost as twilight zonish as some of the sculptures themselves. Now I’ve been to sculpture parks that make sense before— like the wonderful one housing the famous sculptures of Rodin in Paris, but this one is on out there, in every sense of the word. First, the sign, off of old Lawrenceburg Road, which is... Read more
Agatha Christie novels are a particular kind of murder mystery, and thanks to Kenneth Branagh several of the most famous ones (E.G. MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, OR DEATH ON THE NILE) have been made into lavish Hollywood spectacles. A Haunting in Venice is no different, except the original novel was called a Halloween Party, and the story line varies some from the novel itself. Christie’s novels are overwhelmingly ‘who dunnits’, not how was it done etc. And Poirot... Read more
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