Bristol, Tennessee's State Street Has Rhythm... And Roots

"This may be your only chance to see someone play the jug and the bones at the same time," says Rhiannon Giddens as her bandmate, Dom Flemmons, picks up the two instruments. Their high-energy set enthralls an open-air lot full of people, with dancers crowding around the edges to hear the award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops on the Country Mural Stage in Bristol, Tennessee. Just down the road at Borderline Billiards, southern rock band Southern 76 is wrapping up their set, and making way for "dreadneck" act Ras Alan. Usually, Alan is surrounded by a full band. Today, the high energy performer shakes his red dreads as he plays his appalachian reggae songs solo, accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar and keeping a bass drum line going by stomping his foot on a wooden drink box.

On the state line between Tennessee and Virginia, the cities of Bristol, VA and Bristol, TN act as one city, two states. The main street - State Street - runs down the state line. Where State Street runs downtown, brass plates in the middle of the double yellow line mark which side is Tennessee and Virginia. Over the street a sign declares Bristol to be "A Good Place to Live," and a growing annual festival also proves it to be a good place for live music.

For the past six years, State Street has played home to the Rhythm & Roots Reunion. The music festival first began in October of 2001, and since then September has marked the date of Bristol's annual reunion. Appalachian artists both big and small gather to play in an assortment of venues, with the latest festival featuring seventeen stages.

Bristol - officially recognized as the birthplace of country music - closes State Street for one weekend every year to pay tribute to and feature all of its musical heritage, from country to rock to reggae. In 1927, Ralph Peer and his recorder from the Victor Talking Machine Company called acts from all over the southern Appalachians to Bristol's main drive to record their music. Today, the street festival draws crowds who wander from stage to stage, seeing acts as diverse as the celtic fusion group Celtic Aire, traditional piedmont stringband act the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and appy reggae pioneer Ras Alan. Early attendance figures for 2007 place the audience flooding State Street at somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000, each having paid between $15 for a single day ticket or $35 for a weekend.

No street festival would be complete without its vendors, and the selection lining the streets of Bristol is almost as diverse as the music on its stages. Gary D. Varner is set up at a small table selling copies of his book and 3-CD set, Let Me Tell You a Story. Down the road a little way hungry audiences visiting the food court will find a large tent selling Greek diner favorites, and they can double back to pick up local restaurant C.J. & Company's desert specialty, chocolate-dipped cheesecake on a stick. Walking past wooden puzzle boxes, bamboo walking sticks in Virginia Tech and University of Tennessee colors, a few bucks and a handful of tickets will get you a taste of different chili recipes competing to be the best of this year's festival.

The festival combines the best elements of county fairs and open-air concert festivals. The Rhythm & Roots Reunion seems deceptively small when viewed on a map of the downtown area. Offering more bang for the buck than the average music festival, it's clear why the Rhythm & Roots Reunion is one of the fastest-growing music festivals of the American southeast.