On Thursday night, Historic Westwood became a time machine.
The historic 1890 Queen Anne-style mansion property on Kingston Pike, a joint project of Knox Heritage and the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance, was a belated wedding gift from Bleak House owner Robert H. Armstrong to his daughter Adelia and her new husband John Edwin Lutz. If her daughter Louise (age three in 1890 when they moved in) had thrown a stylish party when she turned 40 in 1927, it might have looked like Knoxville Stomp’s Opening Night Party, the Sugarlands Speakeasy.
The house was filled with costumed guests approximating styles from the 1890s up through the 1940s. Interpretations of the theme ranged from Chicago pin-striped mafiosos and flappers to three-piece navy blue banker suits to professorial tweeds to Great Gastby-esque seersucker suits with straw boater hats. Most of the musicians and friends opted for the hillbilly, farmer, train-hopping hobo tramp or working man look, with weather-beaten hats, bushy beards and various combinations of canvas, denim, flannel and leather. There were even a few tuxedos and sequined cocktail dresses in the mix.
The downstairs Fresco Parlor, West Parlor, Dining Room and Painting Studio were filled with bars, buffet tables, mingling guests and acoustic music from Stomp artists, sung out into the room–sans-sound equipment–throughout the night. Sugarlands Distillery had a special moonshine cocktail bar on the porch serving antique drinks, and bowls of sea salt caramels sat around the house. A crate outside contained for-sale copies of the Bear Family Records Knoxville Sessions and Bristol Sessions box sets, along with other collector records.
In attendance were various dignitaries of the festival and Knoxville music, art and history, including TAMIS archivist Eric Dawson, Knoxville History Project’s Jack Neely, the Appalachian Hippie Poet Bill Alexander, festival Production Director Matt Morelock, and board members of the Bijou, Knoxville History Project and Westwood, along with dozens of ticketed guests.
As guests entered the historic home, replete with original hardwood floors, stained glass transom windows and skylights, several Persian rugs, pianos and elaborate fireplace mantels, they were treated to the jaunty Django Reinhardt-style gypsy jazz of Kukuly and Gypsy Fuego. Later on was Buck Hoffman and Friends (members of Knox County Jug Stompers) playing some Piedmont Blues, and finally a rowdy old-time jug set from Knox County Jug Stompers themselves, with a few guests and friends.
A great time seemed to be had by all and the event set the tone for three more days filled with historical talks and panel discussions, documentaries and short films (mostly in the East Tennessee History Museum), a record show, and performances all over downtown of Stomp artists playing old-time standards and specific songs from the Knoxville Sessions of 1929 and 1930.
Today’s Friday lineup begins at noon with the first of what will be many difficult overlapping choices for festival goers to make: at WDVX, Matt Kinman and Roochie Toochie and the Ragtime Shepherd Kings will play the Blue Plate Special, and at the East Tennessee History Center there will be a panel discussion entitled “Tennessee Trio: The Tennessee Recording Sessions of 1927-1930).” All day there will be films, discussions and performances, all free to the public.
Tonight is the the Dom Flemons Presents: “A Few of My Favorite Records” show in the Bijou Theatre with the Knox County Jug Stompers, the only other ticketed event of the weekend, featuring live wax cylinder recordings, Flemons playing and talking about some of his favorite records on an antique Victrola, and sets from KCJS and Flemons.
