East Tennessee History Fair, Part One

I’m not sure why it always works out this way, but anytime I miss a weekend downtown it always turns out to be amazing.  Maybe it’s because unless it’s the dead of winter, they are all pretty good. At least I missed this one for a good reason: Urban Father turned 80 and we had a great time gathering with his friends on the Gulf Coast.

Meanwhile, back in Knoxville, Saturday was a red-letter day, with the Farmer’s Market flowing right into the East Tennessee History Fair which ended just in time for the Band Eat Band contest on Market Square. One of my friends noted that he enjoyed the backstage tour of the Tennessee Theatre and snagged some clay pots for only $10. Another friend pointed out that the underground tour of Gay Street was pretty cool.

My friend Daniel Taylor is one of several excellent photographers I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know in recent years and when I learned through his lovely wife that the two of them would be downtown on Saturday, I mentioned that I would love it if he took some photographs I could use for this article. And he generously did just that.

In fact, he was so generous, I’m likely going to run two of these articles because I can’t decide which photographs I love the most. We’ll just enjoy them all together. When he’s not taking photographs and sharing them with me, he’s working his art at his own website, which you should definitely check out. He has some great photographs there. He’s also a jazz drummer looking for a gig, so call him (865-363-3772) if you got something going on.