Time To ‘Sing’ Bristol’s Story To World

By The Continuous News Desk

Published: July 5, 2008

BY ROGER LEONARD
SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER

We live in an amazing place. Where else in the world can we find the glorious beauty of mountains, valleys and rivers flowing through communities of talented and caring people. Our ancestors conquered new frontiers, raised brave soldiers who fought enemies both foreign and domestic and, quite uniquely, introduced traditional country and old time music to the entire world!

Rick Rose, artistic director of the Barter Theatre, has noted that we sometimes think that we don’t deserve the best. He is making this point, because he wants us to deserve the best! We claim a rich and unique cultural heritage that we should celebrate and continue to share with the world.

Traditional old time and country music started here – not in Nashville, Branson or New York – but right here in our very region. Tens of thousands of people travel to Bristol to celebrate our musical and cultural heritage during Rhythm and Roots and at other times of the year. Bristol Motor Speedway President Jeff Byrd, who knows a few things about tourism and entertainment, has even said that our country music heritage has the potential to lap our racing heritage! We are, indeed, special.

WE HAVE a legacy. A legacy is a gift to the future. The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance Cultural Heritage Center project is not about celebrating the past as much as it is about creating our future.
In good times and hard times, from homes, churches and taverns, our music has echoed through these mountains and rang from deep within our souls. As incredible as it may seem, we probably produce as many high-quality musicians and songwriters per capita as Nashville. Go to any local jam session and you’ll hear someone who has performed, written or recorded professionally – or is likely to in the future. Like Bristol Motor Speedway, the Cultural Heritage Center will give the world the opportunity to experience our living legacy!

We have an opportunity to tell our story – or, better yet, sing our song – to the world. Words are to history what experience is to music. Our Cultural Heritage Center will sing our experience to hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. The world will genuinely feel our history through the shared experience of music and culture. Like a living melody, visitors will take with them a vital piece of our heritage to share with their family, friends and neighbors throughout our great country and the world. In exchange, they will invest their vacation and travel dollars with us.

NOT ONLY that, the Cultural Heritage Center will drive downtown development to the next level. The rebirth of downtown Bristol began with the renovation of the Paramount Center for the Arts and continued with the Bristol Public Library expansion, the YWCA relocation and the trainstation renovation. The result has been an increase in redevelopment that is the envy of the region.

The Cultural Heritage Center – combined with Bristol Motor Speedway and Rhythm and Roots – will be the three part harmony that sings out loud our story to the world. We’ve been discovered by Joseph Anderson, Ralph Peer and Bruton Smith. We’ve been discovered before and we’ll be discovered again. We have an opportunity!

Let’s imagine that our future will be as glorious as our past. Let’s imagine a future where our native talent engages a new future that, in ways impossible to imagine now, reaffirms our voice – in word and song – as vital to our world’s cultural heritage. We can imagine!

Let’s recapture Bristol’s place in our country’s musical heritage. We no longer have to play second fiddle to Nashville or Branson. We were first. We’ll always be first. Let’s start now. Let’s build the BCMA Cultural Heritage Center. How ’bout it? Let’s all sing out loud! We can do it!

Roger Leonard, of Bristol, Tenn., is president of Electro-Mechanical Corp., and is a member of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance Cultural Heritage Center advisory council.