I had a very culturally fulfilling day today, in an East Tennessee sense, and I'll blog about more of it tomorrow. But I just wanted to mention that Music Row of Maryville is just about the coolest place I've ever been. Where else can you go and watch dozens of musicians of all ages - and I mean ALL ages, from 10 to 90 - improvise, play, perform and chat for free. Yes, you must appreciate East Tennessee music, which means bluegrass and traditional country music.

I met a Maryville College student in there whom I'd met before and he said it best about Music Row: "This place is like a family." The essence of bluegrass music is its interactivity: each musician plays off the other, as in jazz. There needs to be an inherent trust in there in order to improvise; you have to be on the same vibe. The beauty of Music Row is that some other dude can just walk into the room, set up his mandolin, banjo or guitar, and jump right in with a beautiful harmony or solo. It's a community in the best sense.

While there I met a 16-year old musician named Jack Wilburn who once performed on the WDVX Blue Plate Special. He played three instruments (banjo, guitar and piano) like a consummate pro. When I heard him I was still considering whether or not I wanted to move here. But hearing this young man perform on the webcast of WDVX helped convince me that East Tennessee was a truly special place: few other places in America would produce and support a guy like Jack Wilburn. I told him tonight how much I appreciated both his musical ability and his showmanship and wished him the best. In true East Tennessee fashion he was modest and appreciative.

I highly suggest anybody in East Tennessee with any love for traditional East Tennessee music check out this place. They play pretty much all night on Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays (in perfect East Tennessee form, the building doubles up as a Pentacostal church on Sundays.) It's on 2808 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, about two miles east of Maryville heading toward Townsend.