Sept2017

SEPTEMBER 2017

The Bourbon Issue Jeptha Creed Distillery Moonshine University Lexington Brass Band Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

Steven Curtis Chapman

Display until 10/12/2017

10 Shows to Watch www.kentuckymonthly.com

The Greatest Seven Days in Bourbon September 11-17, 2017, In Bardstown, the Bourbon Capital of the World®

Bourbon is a good thing.

Too much Bourbon? Not a good thing.

Consume with care.

®

License No: EXE0000863

In This Issue

21

30 Departments 2 Kentucky Kwiz 4 Mag on the Move 6 Across Kentucky 8 Curiosities Kentucky’s Floral Clock 9 Music Zoe Speaks 10 Cooking 14 24 Hours in Bowling Green 40 Off The Shelf 43 Kentucky Travel Industry Association’s Signature Fall Events 44 Gardening 45 Field Notes 46 Calendar

Featured Fare 21 Family Creed

Shelbyville distillery blends modern science, time-honored techniques and family history

24 Making Bourbon Makers

Louisville’s Moonshine University offers courses in producing Kentucky’s world-famous drink

30 Keep Calm and Brass On

Vince DiMartino and the Lexington Brass Band enlighten, engage and entertain listeners

34 Words and Music

Steven Curtis Chapman takes his fans through his life story

38 Shows in the Spotlight

Voices

3 Readers Write 42 Past Tense/ Present Tense

A sampling of 10 performing arts productions slated to take place across the Commonwealth

56 Vested Interest

10

ON THE COVER Photo by Sergey Nemo

KENTUCKY

Kwiz

Test your knowledge of our beloved Commonwealth. To find out how you fared, see the bottom of Vested Interest or take the Kwiz online at kentuckymonthly.com.

7. “The City Built Inside a Meteorite Crater” and “Crater City” both belong to which city also known as “The Athens of the Mountains?”

A. Pineville B. Middlesboro C. Hazard

2. Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky” is considered a type of what?

A. Waltz B. Jig C. Opera 3. The longest city nickname in Kentucky: “The Little Town That International Harvester, Coal Miners, and their Families Built” belongs to: A. Belfry B. Benham C. Bethlehem 4. The “Bourbon Capital of the World” is: A. Lebanon B. Frankfort C. Bardstown

8. While Lexington is known as the “Horse Capital of the World,” which nearby city claims the title “Thoroughbred Capital of the World?”

A. Winchester B. Versailles C. Paris 9. Straight-shooting Alice Allison Dunnigan of Russellville was the first African American to fill what role in Washington, D.C.?

A. Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery B. First such journalist to accompany a president while traveling on a campaign trip C. Scorekeeper for the Washington Senators of the American League 10. Broadcaster Durward “Durwood” Kirby of Covington is best remembered as the co-host of what popular 1960s television program?

A. The Bob Braun Show B. What’s My Line C. Candid Camera

5. Which Kentucky city is not known as “The Gateway to the South?”

A. Covington B. Louisville C. Middlesboro 6. Cincinnati, Ohio, and Charlotte, North Carolina, are each known as “The Queen City,” but “The Queen City of the Mountains” is: A. Corbin B. Hyden C. Hazard

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

© 2017, Vested Interest Publications Volume Twenty, Issue 7, September 2017 STEPHEN M. VEST, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

1. Agent Pride (Scott Bakula) drinks

which brand of Kentucky bourbon on the television drama CSI: New Orleans?

A. Buffalo Trace B. Bulleit C. Blanton’s

Celebrating the best of our Commonwealth

Editorial PATRICIA RANFT, Associate Editor DEBORAH KOHL KREMER, Assistant Editor MADELYNN COLDIRON and TED SLOAN, Contributing Editors JESSICA PATTON, Art Director ALEX SANDEFUR, Editorial Intern Senior Kentributors JACKIE HOLLENKAMP BENTLEY, ANNETTE CABLE, BILL ELLIS, STEVE FLAIRTY, GARY GARTH, CYNTHIA GRISOLIA, RACHAEL GUADAGNI, JESSE HENDRIX-INMAN, ABBY LAUB, WALT REICHERT, GARY P. WEST

Marketing and Circulation BARBARA KAY VEST, Business Manager

Advertising

JULIE MOORE, Senior Account Executive MISTEE BROWNING, Account Manager EDLISA EMBRY, Account Executive DAVID MCMILLEN, Account Executive JENNIFER MCMILLEN, Account Executive For advertising information, call (888) 329-0053 or (502) 227-0053 KENTUCKY MONTHLY (ISSN 1542-0507) is published 10 times per year (monthly with combined December/ January and June/July issues) for $20 per year by Vested Interest Publications, Inc., 100 Consumer Lane, Frankfort, KY 40601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Frankfort, KY and at additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to KENTUCKY MONTHLY, P.O. Box 559, Frankfort, KY 40602-0559. Vested Interest Publications: Stephen M. Vest, president; Patricia Ranft, vice president; Barbara Kay Vest, secretary/treasurer. Board of directors: James W. Adams Jr., Dr. Gene Burch, Kim Butterweck, Gregory N. Carnes, Barbara and Pete Chiericozzi, Kellee Dicks, Maj. Jack E. Dixon, Bruce and Peggy Dungan, Mary and Michael Embry, Wayne Gaunce, Frank Martin, Lori Hahn, Thomas L. Hall, Judy M. Harris, Greg and Carrie Hawkins, Jan and John Higginbotham, Dr. A. Bennett Jenson, Walter B. Norris, Kasia Pater, Dr. Mary Jo Ratliff, Barry A. Royalty, Randy and Rebecca Sandell, Kelli Schreiber, Christopher E. and Marie Shake, Kendall Carr Shelton, Ted M. Sloan and Marjorie D. Vest.

Kentucky Monthly invites queries but accepts no responsibility for unsolicited material; submissions will not be returned.

Kentucky Monthly is printed and distributed by Publishers Press, Shepherdsville, Ky.

www.kentuckymonthly.com (888) 329-0053 P.O. Box 559 100 Consumer Lane Frankfort, KY 40601

Bill Monroe and Colonel Harland Sanders

VOICES MORE TO LOVE

Regarding the “Quintessential Kentucky Foods” article (May issue, page 28), what about corn pudding and cream candy?

Kathryn Voiers, Flemingsburg BENEDICTINE FOUND I was perusing your website on the food page and saw you had Benedictine and where to find it.

Please know that Frankfort’s own Patty Peavler has a small business called Church Lady Cheeses, and she makes the most wonderful Benedictine, which she sells at the St. Mathews Farmers Market every Saturday, from now until midOctober. She has pimento cheese as well.

Thought you might want to add her to the list!

Anne B. Banks, Frankfort FAMILY HEROES Regarding Bill Ellis’ column on heroes and villains (May issue, page 51) yes, I have heroes in my family. They would be too numerous to count if I attempted to name them all. They range from Revolutionary War patriots, Civil War ancestors on both sides, up to World War II and beyond. I salute all those in my family who served.

My favorites are an undetermined number of women in my family who waited at home while the men were off to war. They kept the home fires burning and wrote letters, brought in crops, nursed and cared for their children, in some instances burying them. Some of their men did not return, and so they then went on without them but always kept the loved one’s memory alive.

What makes a hero? A quiet dedication to almighty God, one’s family and country, a willingness to step forward and shoulder a responsibility, to put others before oneself, and finally, to offer the ultimate sacrifice for what one believes. That is a hero.

Cynthia Taylor Evans, Lewisport

Readers Write Correction The byline for the book review on Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel, should have been Susan Montgomery (August issue, page 40).

We Love to Hear from You! Kentucky Monthly welcomes letters from all readers. Email us your comments at editor@ kentuckymonthly.com, send a letter through our website at kentuckymonthly.com, or message us on Facebook. Letters may be edited for clarification and brevity.

Counties featured in this issue n

A U G U S T 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

3

MAG

ON THE

MOVE

Even when you’re far away, you can take the spirit of your Kentucky home with you.

And when you do, we want to see it!

Take a copy of the magazine with you and get snapping. Send your highresolution photos (usually 1 MB or higher) to editor@kentuckymonthly.com.

Beth and Ron Skulas

Arctic Circle The Cold Springs couple traveled the Dalton Highway through Alaska to reach the Arctic Circle.

Rudy and Lisa Ross Allyson Faye Burton Brake, Faye Burton & Samantha Faye Jenkins Portland, Maine Australia The Rosses of Richmond visited Traveling in the Australian Outback, these Ashland natives are pictured in front of Uluru, or Ayers Rock, a massive sandstone monolith.

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Maine’s oldest lighthouse, the scenic Portland Head Light, which dates back to 1787.

Pat Murphy and Sally Porter Scotland Pat, center, and Sally of Christian County took in the sights and sounds of Scotland, including the tunes of a bagpiper, while on their travels.

Pat and Ken Howe St. Marys, Georgia

Mike Tomblinson Frankfort

Pat and Ken ventured from their Crestview Hills home to visit St. Marys in southeast Georgia.

Mike, a Madisonville resident, paid his respects at Frankfort’s Vietnam Memorial.

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BRIEFS

Across Kentucky

BIG NEW FEST

L

ouisville is rolling out a new festival this fall. Billed as “a perfect blend of

bourbon, food & music,” the Bourbon & Beyond extravaganza, Sept. 23-24 at Louisville Champions Park, presents A-list musical acts such as Stevie Nicks, Eddie Vedder and the Steve Miller Band.

Food figures large in the event, with star chefs from some of the city’s finest eateries exhibiting their culinary prowess, including Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia, The Wine Studio, MilkWood and Whisky Dry; Anthony Lamas of Seviche; and Dean Corbett of Corbett’s and Equus & Jack’s Lounge. Additionally, acclaimed chefs from across the country, such as Tom Colicchio of New York and Chris Cosentino of San Francisco, will provide delectable delights.

This celebration wouldn’t be complete without the bourbon. Labels represented include Barton 1792, Angel’s Envy, Basil Hayden, Buffalo Trace, Bulleit, Four Roses, Jefferson’s, Knob Creek, Larceny, Maker’s Mark, Old Forester, W.L. Weller, Woodford Reserve and many more.

For more information and to order tickets, visit bourbonandbeyond.com.

PRESERVATION SYMPOSIUM

B

efore Kentucky was Kentucky, Paris’ Duncan Tavern, today owned and operated by the Kentucky Society Daughters of the American Revolution, was among the most important gathering places in the future Commonwealth. It was a frequent stop for Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and others.

On Sept. 16, the tavern and the Bourbon County Courthouse just across the street will host the first Heritage Preservation Symposium with the backing of some of Kentucky’s most supportive philanthropists and preservationists.

Three major orators highlight the daylong event beginning with “The Dilemmas of Daniel Boone” by Stephen Aron. Daniel Kurt Ackermann will present “Becoming Kentucky: Cultural Confluence in Decorative Arts of Early America,” and art historian Estill Curtis Pennington follows with “Kentucky: The Far West of the Old South in Romantic Art.” Aron, a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the author of How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay (1996), among other books.

Ackermann is curator of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem Museums & Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Born in Bourbon County, Pennington studied art, history and literature at the University of Kentucky. He has served as curator of the National Portrait Gallery, the Archives of American Art and the Filson Historical Society, among others.

His publications include William Edward West (1788-1857): Kentucky Painter; Gracious Plenty: American Still-Life Art from Southern Collections; Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression; and Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 18001920. A co-editor of the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, he is completing a look at the life and works of Kentucky artist Matthew Harris Jouett (17881827).

To order tickets to the event, visit duncantavern. eventbrite.com.

Duncan Tavern 6

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

B I R T H DAYS 4 Wes Cowen (1961), antiques dealer best known for his work on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow and History Detectives 7 W. Earl Brown (1963), Murray-born character actor best known for his work on the HBO series Deadwood 7 Kaitlynne Postel (1986), Miss Kentucky 2007 9 Keven McQueen (1966), RichmondWes Cowen based author 12 Josh Hopkins (1970), Lexingtonborn film and television actor 12 Karen McElmurray (1956), writer/ instructor best known for her novel Hotel of the Stars 17 Richard Taylor (1941), Kentucky poet laureate, 1999-2001 20 Jude Deveraux (1947), Fairdaleborn romance author of more than two-dozen New York Times bestsellers 21 King Kelly Coleman (1938), record-setting basketball player at Wayland High School and Kentucky Wesleyan College 21 Jerry Bruckheimer (1945), Jude Deveraux television/film producer, who, along with his wife, Linda, has preserved numerous properties in Bloomfield (Nelson County) 22 Stephen Buttlesman (1964), official bugler at Churchill Downs and Keeneland 23 Les McCann (1935), Lexingtonborn soul jazz piano player and vocalist 23 George C. Wolfe (1954), Frankfortborn director, writer and theater producer 25 Hal Sparks (1969), comedian/actor from Peaks Mill in Franklin County, best known for hosting E!’s Talk Soup 30 Eddie Montgomery (1962), half of the country music duo Hal Sparks Montgomery Gentry

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For more information about program successes in graduation rates, placement rates and occupations, pleaseMvisit: sullivan.edu/programsuccess.

AY 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY 7

CULTURE

Curiosities

I

f you are visiting Frankfort, be sure to mosey over to the west lawn of the Capitol and pass the time—literally.

There you will find time ticking away on the massive landmark known as the floral clock. Most of the year, the 34-foot diameter timepiece is made up of more than 10,000 colorful blooms and greenery, all grown in local greenhouses.

There are many floral clocks around the world. The first sprang up in the early 1900s in Edinburgh, Scotland’s West Prince Street Gardens. It was the brainchild of John McHattie and clockmaker James Ritchie. Others can be found in Christchurch, New Zealand; Melbourne, Australia; Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada; Zacatlán, Puebla, Mexico; and Tehran, Iran. The late King of Pop Michael Jackson even had one at his Neverland Ranch in California. But not all floral clocks are created equal. As far as we know, only Frankfort’s clock can lay claim to being a hotbutton issue between political foes.

Kentucky’s floral clock was erected in 1961 by then-Gov. Bert T. Combs. A joint venture between state government and the Garden Club of Kentucky, the whopping watch was inspired by the original structure in Scotland. At its dedication ceremony, Combs joked that the project was constructed because, “Kentucky wanted to keep up with the times.”

But the huge timepiece was paid for by the governor’s contingency fund, and consequently, it earned Combs some public ridicule, particularly from his perennial political adversary, A.B. “Happy” Chandler. Combs and Chandler faced off in the 1955 gubernatorial election (Chandler won) and were enemies again during Combs’ 1959 campaign against Chandler’s favored candidate, Wilson Wyatt (Combs won). Chandler often mocked the clock, once noting, “They don’t say it’s half past two in Frankfort anymore. They say it’s two petunias past the jimson weed.”

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Others called the clock Combs’ Folly or Big Bert, a reference to London’s Big Ben. The jokes were apparently just too hard to resist. One popular quip was noted in an article in The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1962: “When America’s first astronaut went into orbit, the running joke in Kentucky was that he was setting his watch by the only visible timepiece on earth—the Floral Clock.”

But the little wrinkle in time didn’t last long.

Eventually, the floral clock became one of the most talkedabout attractions in the state and easily one of the most visited places in Frankfort, especially in the summer. It’s even a popular spot for high schoolers to pose for promnight photos.

Other unique things of note about Frankfort’s floral clock: It keeps perfect time silently. It has a 20-foot minute hand and a 15-foot hour hand, each weighing in at approximately 500 pounds. The whole clock tips the scales at 100 tons (dirt and all). The inner workings consist of six gears, an electric meter and a control mechanism that makes corrections every hour and resets the clock following power failures. All of this is enclosed in the stone pedestal on which the planter rests.

The clock stands at angle, which makes it appear to be floating on air, and, unlike other floral clocks around the world, it rests over a huge reflecting pool of water. Coins tossed in the fountain for luck are contributed to programs benefiting Kentucky youth.

There are many reasons to visit the floral clock, including, as one visitor noted, “The Kentucky floral clock is not only beautiful, but it smells great, too!”

The Capitol is at 700 Capital Avenue. Grounds open from dawn till dusk daily, year-round. For more information, call the Franklin tourism office at (502) 875-8687.

— Cynthia Grisolia

Illustrations by Annette Cable

CULTURE

C

Music

Speaking Music

arla Gover and Mitch Barrett have devoted their lives to music, but the path has been rather crooked. However, it’s a path Gover wouldn’t trade for anything.

The couple met more than 20 years ago, married and formed a band. They played and toured the world for 12 years but eventually divorced. Raising their two daughters kept them in touch. “After a few years had passed, we realized we still wanted to make music together because there was something special there,” Gover said.“It has been an interesting journey for us, but we are very happy that we can still have such a good relationship even though we went through a divorce.”

Although some people may find their arrangement unconventional, Gover feels it fits right in with family dynamics in the 21st century. “I know that we felt shame and a sense of failure when going through divorce, and I think it’s something that others struggle with, too,” she said. “We want to be role models for how to navigate relationships in this world with many families who don’t fit the ‘whitepicket-fence, 2.5-kids’ mold that some of us had in our heads.”

Times have changed, and families have changed. “There are lots of stepfamilies, extended families, families with same-gender parents, grandparents raising grandchildren, etc. in our modern world, and we want to promote acceptance and the awareness that we can still raise happy and healthy kids, and all get along, even if our lives turn out differently than how we had planned,” Gover said.

Music also was part of Gover and Barrett’s families while growing up.

According to Barrett, who hails from southern Madison County, “Our music is based in a sense of place. We learned from grandparents and community. We had a connection to the land, growing up learning from grandparents.”

Gover grew up in Whitesburg, in Letcher County, and learned a lot of music from her family and neighbors.

“Our music is steeped in the Appalachian music that we were raised with, but we were also influenced by singer-songwriters From left, Mitch Barrett, Owen Reynolds and from the ’60s and ’70s, and artists Carla Gover who were using their music to pursue social justice and as a tool for social change,” she said.

In their Lexington-based band, Zoe Speaks, Barrett covers guitar, vocals and lap dulcimer, while Gover also sings and plays guitar and banjo. Owen Reynolds from London and Lexington plays bass. When a larger band is needed, Gover and Barrett’s daughter, Zoey Barrett, and her boyfriend, Arlo Barnette, of Bath County play.

Mitch Barrett sees their music as being in the classic folksinger/songwriter genre. “We have a song for every emotion,” he said. Zoe Speaks plays “songs about the joys and struggles of life,” according to Barrett.

Since reforming a musical group, Zoe Speaks has put on a recurring festival called Cornbread and Tortillas, which has played in Lexington and Louisville. The fest features music, stories and dance from Kentucky and Latin America, and the band often works with Appalatin, a Kentucky group whose mission is to mix Appalachian and Latin cultures. Zoe Speaks also has a new album entitled Wings coming out next winter. “It’s being recorded in Morehead, and it has been really special to work with our daughter on recording it,” Gover said.

Gover feels Zoe Speaks has a mission of sorts. “In our songs, we try to convey the best of what it means to be from Appalachia, in sharp contrast to many of the TV documentaries and movies that show the most troubled and backward aspects of our culture,” she said. But the music isn’t Pollyanna-ish. “At the same time, we’re not afraid to tackle talking about social issues, like addiction, teen parenting and the environment.”

Gover and Barrett plan to continue with their band because it’s a natural fit.

“Music is our life. It’s what we do. We live and breathe it. Whether or not we are successful by worldly terms, just doing what we love is success,” said Gover.

— Laura Younkin

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FOOD

Cooking

COMMONWEALTH

TREASURES 10

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • M AY 2 0 1 6

Good food is one of life’s simple pleasures, and Kentucky has no shortage of wonderful, regionally inspired dishes. In chef and educator Albert W.A. Schmid’s latest book, Burgoo, Barbecue, and Bourbon: A Kentucky Culinary Trinity, the author provides a compilation of recipes for two of the Commonwealth’s treasured dishes—burgoo and barbecue—along with sides and tasty cocktails featuring our signature spirit, bourbon.

Photos by Jesse Hendrix-Inman. Recipes from Burgoo, Barbecue & Bourbon: A Kentucky Culinary Trinity,

by Albert W.A. Schmid, published by University Press of Kentucky. The dishes were prepared at Sullivan University by Ann Currie.

Kentucky Burgoo Sharon Thompson is a food writer for the Lexington HeraldLeader and author of the cookbook, Flavors of Kentucky.

Thompson writes, “Keeneland’s burgoo recipe is virtually the same as it was in 1936, except for the type of meat used.” The following dish is adapted from a recipe from Turf Catering, which ran the Keeneland concessions in 2006.

Oil 3 pounds stew meat 1 teaspoon ground thyme 1 teaspoon sage 1 teaspoon oregano 1 teaspoon garlic, minced 1 cup celery, diced 1 cup carrot, diced 1 cup onion, diced 12-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice 2 16-ounce cans mixed vegetables 1 7-ounce can tomato purée 2 pounds fresh okra, sliced 1 tablespoon beef base 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 cup sherry 3 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced Cornstarch 1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven. Brown the stew meat with the herbs and garlic.

2. Add the remaining ingredients, except the cornstarch, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least 3 hours.

3. Adjust seasonings to taste and thicken with cornstarch.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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FOOD

Cooking

Corn Pudding This recipe for corn pudding is based on one from Cook’s Delight, a cookbook by the Plainview Pre-School. Corn pudding is found in most cookbooks related to Kentucky and Southern cuisine.

2 cups corn, canned or fresh from the cob 2 eggs 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine 2 cups milk, scalded 1 medium green pepper, finely chopped (optional) 1 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs until smooth. Add the remaining ingredients, and then pour into a greased baking dish.

2. Set the dish in a pan of hot water and bake until firm, about 1 hour.

Shredded Barbecue A Taste from Back Home by Barbara Wortham features her Aunt Melva’s special shredded barbecue, from which the following is adapted.

3–3 ½ pounds beef or pork, simmered slowly until tender enough to shred with a fork (can use hamburger instead) Sauce 1 medium onion, diced ½ cup celery, chopped 2 tablespoons fat 2 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons prepared mustard 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 cup water ½ cup ketchup 2 tablespoons chili powder ¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1. Sauté onion and celery in fat. Add the remaining ingredients and mix.

2. Shred the meat and add it to the sauce; simmer until completely saturated.

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Cracklin’ Bread The Doe Run Inn was built in 1792 near Brandenburg. Lucille Brown, former owner of the inn, donated a recipe for cracklin’ bread to Kentucky Hospitality: A 200-Year Tradition, published by the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs. Brown said her grandmother used cracklin’s around “hog killing time.” Cracklin’s were used not only to make cornbread—they were also used to make soap and to feed chickens.

This recipe is adapted from Brown’s.

2 cups cornmeal 6 tablespoons flour 2 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoon baking powder 2 teaspoons salt 3 eggs, well beaten 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup milk ½ cup cracklin’s (crumbled crisp bacon) 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix all ingredients together; then pour into a hot, well-greased iron skillet.

2. Bake for about 30 minutes.

Bourbonball One of Kentucky’s favorite fall sweet treats is the bourbon ball—the kind that you eat.

Bartender Joy Perrine took that idea and converted it into a drink, the bourbonball, one of her many award-winning cocktails.

Perrine and Susan Reigler featured this drink in their book, The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book.

1 part bourbon 1 part Tuaca 1 part dark crème de cacao 1 strawberry Combine the ingredients; shake over ice, and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with a strawberry on the rim.

BURLEY TEMPLE INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 oz.

Kentucky Bourbon 4 oz. Ale-8-One Grenadine Maraschino Cherry P R E PA R AT I O N

Fill rocks glass with ice.

Pour bourbon into glass Followed by a splash of grenadine and Ale-8-One. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

DRINK

M AY 2 0 1 6 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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TRAVEL

Explore

I In this installment of “24 Hours in …” our writer visits Bowling Green and gives you the scoop on what to do, where to eat, what to see and where to stay. You’ll discover that you don’t have to travel far to have an awesome mini vacation in our great Commonwealth.

n the heart of downtown Bowling Green is the 2-acre Fountain Square Park, the city center and focal point of this charming town. The fountain, statues, landscape and ages-old trees draw you in, much as the town itself does.

The 19th-century buildings, nearby Western Kentucky University campus and outlying rolling farmland make you want to get to know this area, which has so much to do and see that 24 hours just might not be enough.

As the third-most-populous town in Kentucky, Bowling Green has roots dating back to its incorporation in 1798. Although Kentucky was considered neutral at the start of the Civil War, Confederate loyalists declared the city to be the state capital in 1861. That distinction didn’t last long, as Bowling Green was taken over by the Union army in 1862.

Visitors can tour locales related to Bowling Green’s role in the War Between the States on the Civil War Discovery Trail. This itinerary includes caves where soldiers purportedly hid out, historical markers and homes, and Riverview at Hobson Grove Historic House Museum, a home with a foundation that originally was used as a fort.

•••

Residents of Bowling Green have been starting their day at Riley’s Bakery for more than 60 years, so you probably should, too. You will quickly realize how Riley’s earned that kind of dedication. It’s tough choosing from among all kinds of scrumptious pastries, cakes, cookies and breads tucked into the display cases, but locals recommend the Hungarian coffee cake and the dreamy cream horns.

A must-see while in town is the National Corvette Museum. This huge showroom is an ode to the true American sports car, the Corvette, or ’Vette for short. The museum has around 75 or so cars on display, and you can learn about each one and see rare collections and memorabilia. It also features an unusual exhibit dedicated to the Corvette Cave In, a surprising phenomenon that occurred in 2014, when a giant sinkhole opened up under the museum, and eight

BY DEBORAH KOHL KREMER

Fountain Square Park 14

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

of its prized ’Vettes fell in. Luckily, no one was there when it happened. The museum filled most of the hole and replaced flooring but decided to turn the cave-in into a learning experience for everyone. Enjoy the interactive exhibits, view the beat-up cars that were swallowed in the incident, and take a peek down the windowed manhole cover that remains so visitors can see all the way to the bottom of the 30-foot-deep hole.

Every Corvette on the road today is made at the General Motors Corvette Assembly Plant across the street. The factory gave tours for years, but temporarily ended the tours in June due to construction. They are scheduled to begin again in January 2019.

•••

If there are kids along for your visit, you might want to make a day of it at Beech Bend Park and Splash Lagoon. In business since 1898, the park is a legend in this part of the state. I t has more than 40 rides, a miniature golf course, and an oval track and a drag strip for racing.

Bowling Green has an abundance of eateries. In fact, Warren County has about 450 restaurants, so plan ahead to make the most of your meals.

For lunch or dinner, Cambridge Market & Café, a soupand-sandwich deli, offers daily gourmet specials and some serious homemade pies and specialty cheesecakes.

Another option is Mariah’s, which has been around more than 30 years. The restaurant’s amazing and complimentary fresh, hot rolls served with creamy cinnamon butter are a fantastic precursor to the meal. Delicious entrées such as steaks, salmon, Hot Browns and Mariah’s famous chicken fingers are all great choices. But the eatery also is known for its wood-fired brick oven that pops out some memorable pizzas.

•••

Afternoon activity choices can involve museums or caves, but you’ll have to balance your time if you try to fit it all in.

Although Mammoth Cave National Park is only about 25 miles from Bowling Green, there is a cave tour right in town. Lost River Cave offers Kentucky’s only underground boat tour. Visitors float along the river in a huge cavern, where it is always a comfortable 57 degrees. While you are there, you can walk the wooded trails above ground and do a little bird-watching, too.

If you missed lunch or it is nearly time for dinner, about a half-mile from Lost River Cave is Lost River Pizza. It has a sports bar feel, with televisions mounted at every angle, plus a huge selection of pizzas. It is the perfect way to end a day of spelunking adventures. continued on page 18

National Corvette Museum

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TRAVEL

Explore

Stately Lodgings hen something is advertised as “grand,” it’s always nice W when it really is grand. That’s the case with the Kentucky Grand Hotel and Spa in downtown Bowling Green. Though this eight-suite, four-story boutique hotel opened just months ago, it looks like it’s been there for decades.

That’s the way Dan and Jenna Murph planned it when they found a prime piece of property next door to the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center and across the street from open-air entertainment venue Circus Square.

“We went to painstaking diligence to make it look like it’s been here for a long, long time,” Dan said. “The brick exterior was done after visiting lots of historic cities like Charleston and Savannah.”

The hotel and piano bar weren’t Dan’s first venture as a property developer in Bowling Green. Restoring a former Dollar General store and turning it into desirable office space just a few steps from the town’s historic Fountain Square Park was a hint of things to come. Dan recognized that Bowling Green, unlike many cities he had been in, didn’t have an old landmark hotel still standing. “None of the old hotels had survived, so we wanted ours to look like it was one of them. It had to have an old, rich, traditional look to it, even if it is brand new,” he said.

Dan is quick to say that he wants his hotel to be infused with all of Kentucky, not just Bowling Green. “We have an ongoing collection of old photos from throughout Kentucky on our walls,” he said. “Guests can see some of the state’s history.”

The lobby features a huge chandelier that once helped light Grand Central Station in New York City.

Even though Dan and Jenna have achieved giving the hotel a 1940s look on the outside, it’s the inside that separates it from other lodgings. “We have a lot of nice hotel rooms in Bowling Green, but they are all similar,” Dan added. “But some travelers and corporate people want something different. The smallest of our eight suites is 960 square feet, and the largest is 1,600. Our penthouse is the largest in Kentucky.”

King-size beds, comfortable seating, elegant décor, small kitchens and contemporary oversized baths, along with a deluxe spa on the first floor, let visitors know this is no average hotel.

The floor-to-ceiling windows with unobstructed views of downtown are the crown jewel in each of the suites. Some

come with a tripod-mounted telescope for an even better view of the outside.

The Murphs didn’t just settle on a hotel, however. From the lobby, visitors can walk through a large 1920s speakeasy door—peephole included—and into the Derby Piano and Dessert Bar. The bar is a big-city throwback with a classy, comfortable feel that features a signature blue grand piano behind and above the main bar on the back wall.

“We want something going on here all the time,” Dan said.

A wide food selection, including full meals, complements an assortment of cocktails and other drinks. The 65-seat bar has become a destination in itself and adds another layer in the continued r enaissance of downtown Bowling Green.

But the Murphs’ story is much more than the Kentucky Grand Hotel. Dan grew up in Dallas and attended Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee, in hopes of playing football and to be closer to the Nashville music scene. But in case a hoped-for songwriting career didn’t work out, his college life included debate, broadcasting and quarterbacking on the football team. “I started writing songs in high school,” he said. “I made the connections, and it worked out through an internship in Nashville.”

One of his best connections was Jenna. “I came to Nashville from Pennsylvania to David Lipscomb College to major in music,” she said. “We lived for a while on Music Row, and then when we had a family, we lived in Orlinda, Tennessee, for a while.”

By then, Dan’s songs were being performed by Randy Travis, Reba McEntire, Keith Urban, Vince Gill and Alan Jackson, to name just a few.

It was 2007, and their lives were about to take a turn that neither expected. “Jenna was out driving and discovered Bowling Green. She told me I had to see this place,” Dan recalled. “We came up here, and the rest is history. I refer to it as having a big-city flair with just the right touch of smalltown charm. I want my family to develop roots here.”

Speaking of roots, no one could have blamed Dan if he had gravitated back to Texas. In 2002, he wrote Texas Giant, a biography of his grandfather, Price Daniel, former governor and U.S. senator from the Lone Star State. Another Texan, President George H.W. Bush, wrote the foreword. And if that’s not enough, Sam Houston, one of the most legendary names in Texas history, was Dan’s fourth-great-grandfather.

— Gary P. West

From left, Kentucky Grand Hotel’s penthouse suite, traditional brick exterior and the Derby Piano and Dessert Bar

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WKU is more than a beautiful campus.

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TRAVEL

Explore

continued from page 15 •••

Bowling Green is home to a gorgeous 1925 Classic Revival-style railroad depot that has been restored and is home to the Historic RailPark and Train Museum. The kids will thrill to the interactive exhibits, and history lovers can examine the authentic artifacts from the heyday of train travel. Be sure to take the tour through retired train cars parked out back. There is a 1950s L&N train engine, a 1953 luxury Pullman sleeper car, the Duncan Hines Dining Car and a Chessie class caboose.

On the beautiful campus of Western Kentucky University, which has recently surpassed the University of Louisville in enrollment to become the Commonwealth’s second-largest university, you will find the Kentucky Museum. Full of history on the Commonwealth, it has maps, letters, furniture, toys, diaries and even an 1800s log cabin. There also is an exhibit on Bowling Green’s native son, Duncan Hines. This name, synonymous with cake mixes, belonged to a man who had a storied career writing restaurant guidebooks and producing more than 250 products aimed to aid the life of a housewife.

•••

Dinner options seem to be endless, and there are plenty of eateries in the downtown area. One fun place to visit is White Squirrel Brewery, which has menu options as unique as its beer selections. Entrée choices include burgers and bar food but also not-so-common selections like duck fried poutine, fried chicken and waffles, and skirt steak and polenta. The food is delicious, but the establishment doesn’t have “brewery” in its name for nothing, so try the

beer. The small-batch house beers are the White Squirrel Kolsch, Nut Brown and Pale Ale; a few other craft beers also are on tap.

No matter where you choose to eat your evening meal in Bowling Green, you must save room for dessert. And you can get that dessert in the form of ice cream at Chaney’s Dairy Barn. This working dairy farm, in the Chaney family for generations, features a big red barn where you can order homemade ice cream. Chaney’s has all the “regular” flavors you could wish for but also fun, delicious choices such as Mocha Moo, which is coffee-flavored ice cream with a fudge swirl, caramel and chocolate flakes. Or the aptly named Cookie MOOnster. Who doesn’t love blue ice cream with cookie chunks? The Big Red Rumble is white chocolate ice cream with red velvet cake, chocolate flakes and fudge swirl. And if one of these is not enough, Chaney’s is known for its moo pies—a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie served in a small skillet and topped with a scoop of ice cream. You won’t leave hungry.

For evening entertainment, Bowling Green has its share of bars and clubs. But if you want to take in a show, check out the SKyPAC, the acronym for Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center, or the The Capitol Arts Center.

Both downtown venues feature concerts and entertainment throughout the year.

•••

For more travel ideas and fun facts about the city, stop by the Bowling Green Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

You can’t miss it, as it’s housed in a distinctive log cabin at exit 22 off I-65. The members of the friendly staff are happy to help you plan your visit. Q

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IF YOU GO: Beech Bend Park & Splash Lagoon 798 Beech Bend Road (270) 781-7634 beechbend.com Cambridge Market & Café 830 Fairview Avenue (270) 782-9366

cambridgemarketandcafe.com

The Capitol Arts Center 416 East Main Avenue (270) 782-2787

theskypac.com/capitol-arts-center

Chaney’s Dairy Barn 9191 Nashville Road (270) 843-5567 chaneysdairybarn.com Historic RailPark and Train Museum 401 Kentucky Street (270) 745-0090 historicrailpark.com Kentucky Museum 1400 Kentucky Street (270) 745-2592 wku.edu/kentuckymuseum Lost River Cave 2818 Nashville Road (270) 393-0077 lostrivercave.com Lost River Pizza 2440 Nashville Road (270) 746-0255 lostriverpizza.com

FOLK ~ BLUEGRASS ~ AMERICANA

LIVE!

Mariah’s 360 East 8th Avenue (270) 846-0020 mariahs.com National Corvette Museum 350 Corvette Drive (270) 781-7973 corvettemuseum.com Riley’s Bakery 819 U.S. 31W Bypass (270) 842-7636

Monthly concert series at the historic Capitol Arts Center in downtown Bowling Green.

Visit us online for concert and broadcast information.

LostRiverSessions.org 20

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Riverview at Hobson Grove 1100 West Main Avenue (270) 843-5565 bgky.org/riverview

White Squirrel Brewery 871 Broadway Avenue (270) 904-1573 whitesquirrelbrewery.com SKyPAC 601 College Street (270) 904-5000 theskypac.com

Family

Creed

Shelbyville distillery blends modern science, time-honored techniques and family history

By Deborah Kohl Kremer

M

“

aking old-fashioned new.” That is the vision and motto of Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville. The Nethery family owns and operates the enterprise, which opened in November 2016.

Their goal is to make the finest spirits using old-fashioned methods and a few modern techniques.

Although new to Shelby County, this craft distillery has been in the works for several years as Bruce and Joyce Nethery perfected their plan. Bruce, with a farming background, and Joyce, a chemical engineer, came up with the idea of turning their family’s farmland into a distillery, with ingredients used in the products grown on the property.

“We combined our skill sets and family history and gave our kids careers, too,” Master Distiller Joyce said.

“Plus, we knew we wanted to be a part of Kentucky’s bourbon culture.”

Their daughter, Autumn, 23, is the marketing manager, and son Hunter, 18, helps out on the farm and is the beekeeper.

Armed with a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering, Joyce rediscovered her love of chemistry and developed an interest in distilling when she enrolled in a concentrated, five-day distillers course at Moonshine University in Louisville (see related story on page 24).

Joyce sent Autumn to Edinburgh, Scotland, for a year to study brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University. “I fell in love with the science and history of distillation, and I wanted to learn more, but I could not find a program in the U.S.,” Autumn said. “But one thing I learned is that Kentucky got most of their distilling practices from Scotland, anyway.”

Autumn returned stateside and finished up her marketing degree at the University of Kentucky. She now puts her education to use every day.

••• The family chose the name of the distillery by digging into their roots. Three generations of Netherys have farmed the foothills of the area known as Jeptha Knob. The moniker came from none other than Squire Boone, Daniel Boone’s brother, back in the late 1700s. Squire Boone originally christened the hill Jephthah Mountain after a biblical warrior. Over the years, while the spelling was changed to Jeptha, the name stuck. The “Creed” in the name also comes from family tradition.

“We use superior ingredients—all natural—with no artificial anything. That is our creed,” Autumn explained.

The key ingredient to the spirits at Jeptha Creed is a deep red variety of corn called Bloody Butcher. The origins of this heirloom, non-GMO corn trace to the mid-1800s, when it was cultivated in the Appalachian Mountains. It is difficult to grow, as the plant gets tall and typically produces skinny stalks with a low yield. One wild and windy Kentucky summer thunderstorm can wipe out a field.

But the Netherys are willing to take that chance.

“A few years ago, I tried growing hybrid tomatoes on our farm,” Joyce said. “They looked nice but did not taste as good. So I switched to heirloom tomatoes, which taste so much better but don’t look so nice.”

The same holds true with the Bloody Butcher corn.

“We grew a test patch of this corn in a small field next to regular yellow corn. We watched as the deer and turkeys walked right through the field of yellow corn to get to the Bloody Butcher and eat it,” she said. “These animals have a choice, and even they know which corn is better.”

Despite its rather unsavory and even scary name, the Netherys determined the corn has an exceptional flavor.

The family has been at work for several years, but the bourbon is quietly aging on the distillery property and won’t be available for purchase until 2019. Luckily, Jeptha Creed has some flavors of vodka and moonshine available now, each more delicious than the next. The distillery produces and sells vodka in original, honey, blueberry and apple flavors, along with original, blackberry, lemonade and apple pie moonshine. The products’ ingredients are sourced from either the Nethery farm or from farms as close to Shelbyville as possible. In addition to the signature corn, the family grows apples and berries.

Currently, they are experimenting with pawpaws and honeybees as well as other crops that may be used in future flavors.

•••

The signature Jeptha Creed Bloody Butcher corn, left, and the bourbon produced from it.

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When the family broke ground for the distillery in 2015, it certainly wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision: The plans had been formulating in Bruce and Joyce’s heads for several years.

“We used an architect, but we had plenty of design ideas ourselves,” Autumn said.

The distillery building, which sits on 64 acres alongside I-64 at exit 32, is as unique as the Bloody Butcher corn Jeptha Creed uses. The giant, red-siding-clad, barninspired structure where the products are created and distilled also houses a retail shop and a cocktail bar. Out back is a gorgeous patio area with comfy chairs, fire pits and games of cornhole just waiting to be played.

Weekends in the summer bring live music, along with food trucks in the parking lot, making the venue even more inviting.

Tours are available of the production facility, where you can learn more about Bloody Butcher corn and the

distillation process. You also can get an up-close look at the bubbling fermenting vats and the shiny copper still.

••• The Netherys are proud of where they are from but equally excited about where they will go. Of Scottish descent, they remain grounded by using the motto, “Ne Oublie,” a Gaelic phrase meaning “Do not forget.”

With her love of the family’s 1,000 acres of farmland, Joyce said she is proud to represent Kentucky and honor its history and heritage. She also looks forward to opening all those barrels of bourbon that sit on her farm, slowly aging as each season passes.

“Although I’m impatient for 2019 to get here, I’m sure we will find that the old-fashioned way will turn out to be the best way,” she said. Q

If You Go: Jeptha Creed Distillery 500 Gordon Lane, Shelbyville (502) 487-5007, jepthacreed.com Tours are Tuesday-Sunday on the hour.

The price is $10 and includes your choice of four tastings of Jeptha Creed vodka or moonshine. Those under 21 are invited to tour—with no tasting, of course—for $8.

A stunning copper still is one of the highlights of the distillery tour.

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Making

Bourbon Makers Louisville’s Moonshine University offers courses in producing Kentucky’s world-famous drink Text & Photos by Abby Laub

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M

ost people know Kentucky for its bourbon. In fact, 95 percent of the world’s supply is crafted in the Bluegrass State, and bourbon is America’s only native spirit. The $8.5 billion industry creates 17,500 jobs, accounts for billions of dollars in capital projects, and is responsible for millions of tourism dollars. It’s no surprise that the state is chockful of professionals willing to pass on their knowledge to new generations of bourbon connoisseurs serious enough about the spirit to open new distilleries.

At Moonshine University, educating new bourbon producers is one of the keys to keeping the state’s bourbon tradition alive and well.

Moonshine University Business Development Director Kevin Hall said that since the school opened in January 2013, students from 45 states and 27 countries have enrolled. One alum built a distillery 35 stories up in a skyscraper in Manila, Philippines.

“He’s an outlier, had money coming out of his ears,” Hall said with a laugh. “It was obvious that people needed help opening a distillery, for any type of spirit.”

continuing education credit or 5.5 business management credit hours through Jefferson Community and Technical College. It is the only intensive distilling workshop in the U.S. that can offer college credit and is endorsed by an accredited college and professional industry organizations.

“Our core class is the 5½-day distillers course, where 35 presenters come in over the course of the week to teach,” Hall explained. “That really is a 30,000-foot overview if you’re getting into this industry. Most people are in some stage of due diligence. It covers things like building selection, construction, legal, marketing, permitting and compliance, packaging, production, [and] making the spirits, including whiskey, rum and vodka. Equipment, sales strategy, business planning—everything from beginning to end. They can’t learn it all at once, but it gives them an idea of what they don’t know.”

When asked if most people are discouraged or encouraged after the class, Hall noted that the entire week is “kind of a roller coaster.”

••• He said the classes are not MU has the advantage of being for the faint of heart, but “the in Louisville, near many bourbon feedback is almost invariably distilleries. Its aim is to provide positive. The class is people with an opportunity expensive, so they’re serious. similar to what is offered We priced it because we throughout the United States for wanted to weed out the tire those hoping to become kickers.” sommeliers—wine professionals.

••• “For the wine industry, you Kentucky businesspeople can get degree programs. For take bourbon and other spirits example, at UC [the University of seriously, and MU knows that.

California at] Santa Barbara and It is backed by the Kentucky in the beer industry, it’s the same Distillers Association, a thing, but for distilled spirits, nonprofit organization that that doesn’t exist,” Hall said. traces its roots back to 1880 “We’re in Louisville, and it’s the and exists to promote and geographic epicenter of the larger protect all things bourbon. industry, so all of the resources KDA Director of Member are based here. We thought that and Public Affairs Colleen was an opportunity if we put in a Thomas previously served as small distillery with a classroom marketing director for attached to it and then leveraged Louisville-based Flavorman off of all of those resources to and its sister company, the teach classes.”

Distilled Spirits Epicenter. In But average bourbon drinkers 2014, she developed the Stave may not be interested in & Thief Society, the first applying. Ringing in at $6,000 for bourbon certification program the five-day course, MU is Moonshine University offers a state-of-the-art facility, with recognized by the KDA. Now, focused on helping those dedicated educators who provide in-depth lectures and MU students can attend the seriously considering diving into prestigious Stave & Thief the industry or for people already hands-on education. daylong class. in the industry who want to “Stave & Thief Society was my signature project—my deepen their knowledge. baby, if you will,” Thomas recalled. “It was a joy to work Hall said roughly 600 people have passed through MU. with so many of the top bourbon and hospitality Also at the facility are one-, two- and three-day classes on topics such as nosing and sensory specializations, Distilling professionals to develop such an outstanding program.”

Thomas also worked with Hall and Colin Blake, MU’s 201, Stave & Thief Society (a bourbon certification director of Spirits Education & Creative Services, to build program) and some custom courses.

MU from the ground up.

Class sizes vary from about 12 to 30 participants, and “I’ve seen hundreds of distilling entrepreneurs go teachers come from all over the country. MU’s 5-Day through Moon U’s classes, and I have a deep respect and Distiller Course, which is offered quarterly, qualifies for admiration for the extraordinary investment each and every S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

25

A CAREER IN WHAT YOU LOVE Open the door to getting paid for doing what you love.

sctd.edu | 502.456.6509 3901 Atkinson Square Drive Louisville, KY 40218 For more information about program successes in graduation rates, placement rates and occupations, please visit sctd.edu/programsuccess

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

one of them puts into their venture— not only monetary, but the time, energy and learning curve that comes with starting a business in this industry are truly astounding,” Thomas said.

“Stave & Thief Society embodies Kentucky’s reverence for our signature spirit by providing an authentic bourbon education and a tremendous support system through its collaboration with the KDA and top practitioners in the bourbon industry,” said KDA President Eric Gregory.

“This program is elevating the bourbon experience for consumers across the country.”

Moonshine University has major backing from big names in the bourbon industry but also includes professionals from dozens of other industries who are employed to run a successful distilling operation.

“We have people from across the industry—like Ph.D. biologists in fermentation and people specializing in branding and public relations, glass people, label makers and attorneys,” Hall said, noting it also employs industry leaders such as Peggy Noe Stevens, the world’s first female master bourbon taster and founder of the Bourbon Women organization, as well as a 30-year Jim Beam operating veteran.

••• MU operates next door to the 25-year-old Flavorman. One of the country’s foremost authorities on flavor, it specializes in beverage production through technical innovation. Some of the MU classroom time involves trips to the adjacent building that is full of numerous beverage flavors—including those of the alcoholic variety. It’s like a miniature laboratory for the students, as is the adjacent Grease Monkey Distillery.

MU is less than a mile from Louisville’s Bourbon Row and is a mere 10 blocks from iconic BrownForman, one of the largest Americanowned companies in the spirits and wine business.

“We have a great relationship with Brown-Forman, and when we joined the KDA, they were our sponsor,” Hall said. “They were instrumental in the curriculum development of Moonshine University and amended the bylaws of the KDA to make us the exclusive education provider. All the heritage distilleries helped pool resources to teach these classes, so we have the best people in the industry to teach.”

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer is a fan of the school. The mayor has a special task force for the city’s frontend hospitality staff and likes for them to attend MU courses.

“If you go to Napa, you’d expect your waiter to know about wine. People come here, and they expect their waiter or bartender to know about bourbon,” Hall said.

“So we put together Stave & Thief. It’s backed by the KDA, so people come and become executive bourbon stewards.”

He said many everyday bourbon enthusiasts enroll in that course, including a man who flew from Tokyo to take it.

Hall said the school has no advertising campaign and has relied solely on the internet and word of mouth for marketing. So far, that’s working. The timing for its inception also happened to be perfect, he said, noting that previously there was no other resource like MU. ••• For some, going to MU wasn’t supposed to be in the cards. Joyce Nethery wasn’t supposed to go to bourbon school.

Now, the former chemical engineer, educator and chief financial officer is one of the state’s three female master distillers and co-owner of Jeptha Creed Distillery, a 15,000-square-foot distillery sitting on 64 acres of Nethery family-owned farmland in Shelbyville (see also page 21).

Jeptha Creed is the 32nd member of the KDA and the first distillery in Shelby County since Prohibition.

Jeptha Creed, which opened in November 2016, and Nethery owe some of their newfound success to Moonshine University.

“When I went to Moonshine University, it was my husband that was wanting to build a distillery,” Nethery recalled. “I told him I thought he was crazy.

But he kept on it, and I was like, if he’s going to do it, he needed some training. So I found Moonshine U, and they had a fiveday distillers course, and I got him signed up for it. Then he couldn’t go; so I went. I was like, ‘We paid for this; now I’ve got to go.’ ” Nethery previously had worked in distillation, and her husband was raised on a dairy farm. They had raised their children on the family farm, so they had the background to run their own distilling operation using ingredients raised on their farm.

To learn more about Moonshine University, visit moonshineuniversity.com

“ We are not interested in making the most, just the best.”

Master Distiller Shane Baker

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After attending the course in 2013, Nethery said she “fell back in love with my engineering, fell back in love with copper and all of the pieces [of making bourbon]. But I think the most important thing that came out of that experience is that I was able to see that we could create our story. They kept saying, ‘You need a story.’ We could combine the farm and the farming aspect of what we were doing with my knowledge of the engineering and distilling and make a fabulous product in the end. I saw that big picture.

“It took a lot of time outside the class to process it and put the pieces together and to actually get the business plan and all of those pieces put in place,” she said. “That all came afterward, but I think the most important piece was the concept that came out of the class.”

••• There are other examples like Nethery, and Hall said he’s confident that like the bourbon industry as a whole, the school has staying power. The name alone evokes curiosity, and when he wears his MU-branded attire out and about, Hall said he often gets stares.

“It’s tongue-in-cheek; people remember it,” he said, just like the names of sister businesses Flavorman and Grease Monkey Distillery. “People will stare at you when you’re wearing the jacket and go, ‘Is that a real place?’ Oh, yeah!”

The KDA points to growing numbers in the industry.

The Commonwealth has a total of 6,657,063 barrels of

bourbon, the most since 1974, when 6,683,654 new charred oak casks were gently aging in Kentucky warehouses. There are now roughly 1.5 barrels for every person living in the state, and U.S. distilled spirits exports topped $1.5 billion in 2013.

Hall speculated that bourbon will not die off.

“The numbers of distilleries have increased eerily identical to the way the craft breweries ramped up 25 years ago, and I think the craft brewing industry reached a stage of maturation, and some of the early adaptors got bored and moved on to distilling,” he said. “Then the numbers have exploded in the last five years.

“They’re drinking something, so it might as well be bourbon. Everything’s cyclical, but I think the distilled spirits base has long, long legs. I think there will be some flattening out, and there will be some consolidation—a lot of them are being bought up by big guys—but I don’t think it’s going away. People like farm-to-table food; they like that with their spirits.”

Hall noted that the export market is “virtually untapped” and there are still many more places for American bourbon to go.

These numbers and prospects can inspire MU students.

Hall said there is a healthy mix of visionaries enrolled who, when combined with grounded realists in the program, “balance each other out.” Q

MU SUCCESS STORIES In addition to Jeptha Creed Distillery’s Joyce Nethery, Moonshine University alumni include the team at Kentucky Peerless Distilling Company in Louisville; Joe and Lesley Heron, founders of Louisville’s Copper & Kings American Brandy Distillery; and Marc Dottore, owner of Dueling Grounds Distillery in Franklin.

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KEEP CALM

& BRASS ON

Vince DiMartino and the Lexington Brass Band enlighten, engage and entertain listeners

By Leif Erickson

M

usic is an oral language,” says renowned trumpet player and teacher Vince DiMartino, musical director of the Lexington Brass Band, which is celebrating its 25th birthday this year. “You can write music on paper and the only thing you can do with it is put it in your fireplace during the winter to keep you warm. Because it doesn’t make any noise.”

DiMartino shrugs disarmingly and smiles when he says this, a smile that asks you to smile with him but doesn’t demand it—which also does a pretty good job of describing the directing style he brings to the band: invite, but don’t force. Invite musicians to express themselves and show off their talents; invite the audience to experience whatever feelings the music inspires in them.

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••• A veteran LBB member who has helmed the band for the past three years, the optimistic, always-encouraging DiMartino may well be the perfect person to lead a real, live, flesh-and-blood community arts organization in the age of the internet and social media, where the possibilities for distraction are seemingly endless.

For DiMartino, the key to staying vital with the audience is, at least partly, to give them the same sensation they experience when a friend comes up behind them and touches them on the shoulder.

“Oh!” DiMartino gesticulates, jumping in his chair a little and grinning. “That! That’s what music does. The audience comes to feel. They don’t just want to hear that you’re in tune.”

Not that being in tune isn’t important too, DiMartino says. It is. After all, half of this challenging juggling act is honoring the part of the band’s mission statement that specifies “performance at the highest artistic level.” And if anyone understands the value of technical proficiency in musical performance, it is DiMartino, a distinguished music professor at Centre College who is in high demand as a trumpet player, having performed with the likes of Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, Sarah Vaughan and Pearl Bailey. (And that is a woefully incomplete list of his accomplishments.)

DiMartino knows that continuing mastery of precise musical technique is what helps elevate music from noise to art, and sacrificing excellence in pursuit of “a broad and diverse audience”—also specified in the mission statement—would leave the organization with neither excellence nor a broader audience, and would violate another of its guiding principles: educate the public.

It is a balancing act he is enthusiastic about helping accomplish, and he has ideas for how to go about it. “Think about it,” he says. “You take the more classic things that we think of that stand the test of time, and we usually find out that they are a combination of both beauty and function.”

The Lexington Brass Band has certainly stood the test of time, thanks in large part to that crucial combination of beauty and functionality. Diverse musical excellence and tradition provide the beauty, allowing for the practical functionality of bringing in and enlightening/entertaining musicians and audiences. Clearly, it is a formula that works.

Vince DiMartino

••• When Ron Holtz, Mike Swafford, Skip Grey and some other musicians founded the Lexington Brass Band in 1992, British-style brass bands were a rarity in the United States. In fact, the Columbus Brass Band, founded just six years before the LBB, was one of the only such bands in the entire country at the time. Holtz and the others had no idea they were at the forefront of a burgeoning movement, but they certainly were: The North American Brass Band Association website currently lists more than 40 brass bands in the U.S. and Canada alone. “The brass band has become a worldwide thing,” says DiMartino. “There are now brass bands in Japan!

It wasn’t that way when we started. It spread.”

These kinds of bands are called “British” not because they play exclusively British music (they don’t), but because they originated in Britain in the 1800s and remain a strong, important tradition there. Other than some percussion, British brass bands consist only of E flat soprano cornets, B flat cornets, B flat flügelhorns, E flat tenor horns (sometimes referred to as E flat alto horns), B flat baritones, B flat euphoniums, B flat tenor and bass trombones, and tubas.

Some of these instruments are so rare today in the U.S. that one seldom gets to hear them played except in a brass band.

Besides a love of music, another aspect of brass band culture that attracted the LBB’s founders is a focus on community. Brass bands are all-volunteer organizations, celebrating the common people and bringing them the opportunity to perform and/or partake of quality, entertaining music performed by skilled musicians from all walks of life. Legend has it that community life and band participation in the earliest British brass bands were so closely linked that skilled laborers often were hired not necessarily for their job skills, but for their ability to play the flügelhorn, say, or the E flat soprano cornet.

Another vital aspect of such a community-centric brass band culture is a love of getting together with other community brass bands as often as possible to share, show off and contend with each other. Brass bands travel to perform and compete as often as their fundraising and S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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schedules will allow, even occasionally venturing overseas.

The LBB has traveled to a host of places in the U.S. as well as England (2000) and Canada (2011).

Kentucky even boasts its own gathering, which draws brass bands—including regular attendees like the LBB— from all over the U.S. and Canada: the famous Great American Brass Band Festival, four free days of jam-packed, frenetic, family-friendly focus on all things brass band, held in Danville every June.

Attend any of these kinds of events, and it immediately becomes clear that for many, brass bands are not just a pastime but a way of life, which explains why a core group of the LBB’s members have been with the band the entire 25 years.

“It’s infectious!” says DiMartino. “When you get in, you stay in.”

••• As the Lexington Brass Band embarks on the next leg of its journey, it is determined to build on the traditions and standards the group has worked hard to develop and sustain for more than two decades. At the same time, it strives to revitalize and fine tune the organization so as to appeal to modern audiences and performers whose attentions are pulled in many directions, thanks in large part to technology that did not exist when the band was founded. Beauty plus functionality equals longevity.

“Our biggest challenge is building an audience,” says band president John Higgins, a member since 1998 and a professional graphic designer who does all the design and graphics work for the group on a volunteer basis. “We have a very loyal following—a small but mighty group of sponsors and patrons and season ticket holders, which is great. Our goal is to build on that.”

To that end, the band’s repertoire is evolving and broadening under DiMartino’s direction and his infectious

love of music of all kinds and the effect it can have on people. A recent concert by the band ran the gamut from a formal 1914 British march to the theme song from the Harry Potter movies. “I love the traditional brass band literature,” DiMartino says, “but you want to have something for everyone. Why did people go see Frank Sinatra? Because he appealed to everybody. Tony Bennett, too—he performs with Lady Gaga. It’s fantastic!”

Higgins also sees the value in this type of branching out.

“What often surprises people is how much range we have, how many genres the band can play in,” he says.

“Sometimes, when people think of brass bands, they think of loud playing and marches. There’s nothing wrong with that, but there is something for everyone, and people are continually surprised by that.”

Not only is the band thinking creatively about ways to attract and educate new audiences but also ways to attract and educate new musicians. “We are trying to broaden out not only for the audience, but also for the performers,” DiMartino says. “You want to give them something new, something challenging, something unexpected. Musicians want to be challenged. I want to be challenged.”

To attract younger performers, the band recently started the First Up program, inviting small high school brass ensembles to play 10- to 15-minute “mini concerts” before the Lexington Brass Band takes the stage. “We really want to get high school kids involved,” says Higgins. “That is a big part of our outreach.”

DiMartino is so excited about all of these developments and the future of the Lexington Brass Band that he practically wriggles in his seat when talking about them.

“The Amish people build barns,” he says, rubbing his hands together. “They all get together, and before you know it, they’ve raised a barn in a few hours. Isn’t that fantastic? You couldn’t do it alone. And you can’t have a band alone.” Q

Kentucky Gateway Museum Center 215 Sutton Street, Maysville, KY 41056 606-564-5865 www.kygmc.org

September 22 through October KYGMC is commemorating the 100th anniversary of the United States entering World War I. A special exhibit will highlight US contributions to the “War to End All Wars,” highlight those from Mason and surrounding counties. On display will be uniforms, artifacts, photos, a time line, and much more from this era.

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Everything autumn—farm market vegetables, scarecrows and scary witches—Thanksgiving feasts from a variety of periods, including one from the Fifties representing Kaye’s childhood.

Visit a lobsterman’s wharf and dine with the Royals. A bounty of miniatures awaits!

S

teven Curtis Chapman chose to mark his 30th anniversary in the music industry in a couple of ways. First, the Kentucky native, who released his first album in 1987 and went on to become the most awarded artist in Christian music history, decided to write a memoir.

Now, he’s getting ready for a solo tour that also takes a look back at his life—through music.

“I’m calling it ‘SCC Solo: A Night of Hits and History,’ ” he explains.

“I’m taking people back on a journey over the past 30 years but also going back even further than that. For example, here’s the first song I learned on the guitar: ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’ Johnny Cash. So, I’ll be sharing some of my influences, but also showing how my music tells the story through the years.”

Chapman’s music story began more than five decades ago in his hometown of Paducah.

“I grew up with music as a big, big part of my life,” he says. “It was

Words and Music Steven Curtis Chapman takes his fans through his life story

Jeremy Cowart photo

By Pam Windsor folk and bluegrass music that I grew up hearing my dad play on weekends with his buddies. The sounds of a banjo and a fiddle and an acoustic guitar. So that music is deep in my veins, runs deep, and it’s been kind of woven into my music over the years.”

Chapman, his older brother, Herbie, and his father all played together in church. After graduating from high school, Chapman ended up getting a summer job with his brother at the former Opryland theme park in Nashville. While it opened some doors for Chapman, even then he felt himself being pulled in a different direction. He wanted to write music about his faith.

“It’s just what flowed out of me most naturally,” he explains.

He recalls having a conversation with his dad, who said that if

Left, Rick Diamond/Getty Images; right, Steve Lowry/Ryman Auditorium

Chapman (second from left) preforming at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, accompanied by his son, Caleb (left), brother Herbie, and father Herb.

Chapman was already experiencing opportunities in the country music world, perhaps he might want to continue in that direction. His faith still would be the most important thing in his life, but he might possibly be able to reach more people from a larger mainstream music platform.

“I remember saying, ‘Dad, I’m not opposed to that, but if I do what comes natural, it ends up being this music that’s about my faith,’ ” he says.

Chapman attended Georgetown College as a pre-med student, and then later transferred to Anderson University in Indiana after learning about a music business program there that had been set up with the help of Christian music artists Bill and Gloria Gaither. It was at Anderson that Chapman met a young woman with the same last name, as the two shared a mailbox. Ohio native Mary Beth Chapman later would become his wife.

Chapman took classes at Anderson and continued writing songs on the side. Soon, one of his songs, “Built to Last,” was recorded by the Imperials. He slowly began making inroads in songwriting, and he and Mary Beth eventually moved to Nashville. As he worked on writing songs, he also began pursuing his dream of becoming a recording artist. He ran into some setbacks along the way.

As he recounts in his book, Between Heaven and the Real World, he was told more than once he might not have “the voice” for performing. But despite those early rejections, Chapman held fast to the belief that God had given him the songs, the passion and a gift for communicating, so he persevered.

Eventually, he got a recording deal.

In the years that followed, Chapman not only would break into the Christian music industry, he would take it by storm. He had a steady stream of hits on the contemporary Christian charts, including “Weak Days,” “His Eyes” and many others, and he soon began getting attention from a more mainstream audience in the 1990s with “Great Adventure,” “Dive” and more, garnering 48 No. 1 hits. Chapman has recorded more than 20 albums over the past three decades with sales totaling more than $11 million. He’s also won an unprecedented 58 Dove Awards, along with five Grammys and an American Music Award.

Even Chapman finds some of his achievements a bit overwhelming. He recalls a trip to New York several years

ago. He was there to play Carnegie Hall and if that wasn’t astounding enough, he found himself walking through the city and thinking back some 15 years earlier when he had walked those same streets.

“I had these memories of Ricky Skaggs and me strolling down the street before the Grammy Awards back then.

What? I know Ricky Skaggs? He’s a friend of mine?” he recalls. “And then Ricky introducing me to Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers at a local deli. And then I went to Radio City Hall and won a Grammy. That’s crazy!”

After a short pause, Chapman continues, “And that’s capped off with tonight, where I’m going to play Carnegie Hall. Who gets to do that? What kid from Paducah, Kentucky, gets to do that? God has really given me some incredible gifts and blessings.”

Chapman says writing his memoir allowed him to go back and relive some of those experiences. The book, co-written with author Ken Abraham and released in March, details many of Chapman’s professional challenges and successes, but also some of his most painful personal experiences. He says he had been approached by publishers to write his story before but wasn’t ready yet.

“I felt like enough time had passed since the tragic loss of our daughter, which is obviously a big part of our story as a family, and my story, and wanting to share that in a way to let people know what the journey has been like,” he explains.

The Chapmans had three biological children—a daughter and two sons—before adopting three daughters from China. In 2008, the youngest child, Maria, was just 5 when she ran, out of the range of sight, into the path of an SUV driven by her 17-year-old brother, Will.

“My wife wrote a book a few years ago from a very honest, vulnerable place,” Chapman explains. “And I kept hearing people say over and over and over again, ‘Thank your wife for her honesty.’ Her book encouraged so many people, and I thought I wanted to share my story with that kind of honesty.”

His book details his family’s journey through faith through the loss of Maria, as well as the intensely difficult time that followed for Will after the accident.

Chapman also touches on other periods in his life, when S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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he and others turned to faith in the face of tragedy. He describes returning to Paducah in 1997 after 14-year-old gunman Michael Carneal opened fire on a group of students praying at Heath High School. The shooting left three students dead and five others injured, including Missy Jenkins, who was paralyzed from the chest down. As a graduate of the school, Chapman was asked to sing at the combined funeral for the students who died. He says it was one of the most challenging things he’s ever done, but remembers noting the power of God’s promises on display at the service that day.

Musician and fellow Kentuckian Ricky Skaggs describes Chapman as one of his dearest friends and a man who doesn’t just talk about his faith; he lives it.

“He walks his faith out,” Skaggs says, “no matter how many times he’s been knocked down. He’s strong; he’s

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weak; he’s bold; but he’s humble; and he’s as tough as a boot and loving as he can be.”

Skaggs says he enjoys singing with Chapman every chance he gets and adds that Chapman’s contribution to Christian music is immeasurable.

“I mean his list of songs—the body of work he’s done so far—and there’s still great stuff yet to come from him, but his body of work has been amazing,” Skaggs says.

Close friend and fellow musician Geoff Moore says it’s Chapman’s honesty that has resonated with fans over the years and given him such longevity.

“In every era of his life, he’s been authentic, both in his art and personal life,” Moore says. “So often what I’ve seen cuts artists’ careers short is they have a season where everything’s great or they’re kind of in their sweet spot, but once they move past that, they aren’t necessarily willing to be honest with their audience. I think Steven has constantly made the choice to welcome us into whatever’s going on, the good and the difficult, and in doing that, his music has been a companion for millions of people through their whole lives.”

Moore, who has known Chapman since both arrived in Nashville more than three decades ago and co-wrote a number of songs with him, including “Great Adventure,” adds that Chapman is also “an amazing musician” who continues to work hard at his craft.

He also says, despite Chapman’s many years in Nashville, that Chapman has never strayed far from his Kentucky roots.

“He’s extremely proud of being from Kentucky. He still loves and embraces where he’s from. He’s one of the Bluegrass State’s good ones, I’ll tell you that,” Moore says.

Chapman credits growing up in Paducah with laying the foundation for the man he is today. His parents still live there, and he and his family have a home in Benton.

“I feel so blessed to have grown up in that part of the world,” he says.

“There’s an honestly and vulnerability, a friendliness and warmth, and I’m so thankful for that. It’s a wonderful place, my old Kentucky home.”

As he looks back over his career, Chapman remains grateful for what he’s accomplished but says he hopes people will look beyond the awards and instead see the blessings.

“I honestly believe if there’s a reason for any of it, it’s been and will be because people will say this is a guy who didn’t have the most amazing voice, sing the highest notes, or write the greatest songs, but this is a guy they connected with,” he says. “If I can tell you my story, share my victories and successes, my failures and defeats, in my marriage, in my life, in my pain, in my joy, what I hope you hear is that God has been faithful in my life. And be encouraged that He will be as faithful in their life and journey as he has been in mine.” Q

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT

By Jackie Hollenkamp Bentley

T

he month of September not only ushers in the official start of fall, but it also heralds the beginning of Kentucky’s arts and entertainment season. From Queen to Howie Mandel, The Nutcracker to The Not So Newlywed Game, Alton Brown to Prince—the 2017-2018 season will not disappoint fans of any genre of the arts.

We’ve highlighted a brief selection of the shows, concerts and plays gracing the Commonwealth’s entertainment venues throughout the season.

QUEEN MACHINE They will, they will rock you! Billing itself as “Europe’s Best Queen Tribute Band,” Queen Machine promises to deliver all the favorite hits from this wildly popular 1970s rock icon, including “We Will Rock You,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “We Are the Champions.”

The Danish group has been touring the world for nearly 10 years, and this October, it brings its Queen tribute to Frankfort’s Grand Theatre for a night of rock.

OCT. 12, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org

FLIP FABRIQUE Not every show can leave the audience with warm, fuzzy feelings, but Flip FabriQue promises to adhere to its commitment to spreading joy, playfulness and friendship through amazing acrobatics.

Complete with hula-hoops, a trampo-wall, juggling and aerialist performances, the Quebec-based circus troupe brings its “Catch Me!” production to Danville’s Norton Center for the Arts for a one-night show in Newlin Hall.

TENDERLY: THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY MUSICAL Kentucky’s favorite daughter, Rosemary Clooney, lived many highs and lows throughout her legendary career, yet she managed to enchant audiences wherever she went.

Now, just 60 miles from her Maysville birthplace, The Carnegie in Covington is celebrating her life by presenting an eight-show run this November.

Fans will not be disappointed when “Come On-A My House,” “Tenderly” and “Hey There (You with the Stars in Your Eyes)” are performed in between personal portrayals that detail Clooney’s successes and struggles.

NOV. 4-19, The Carnegie, Covington, (859) 957-1940, thecarnegie.com

MOSCOW BALLET’S 25TH ANNUAL GREAT RUSSIAN NUTCRACKER Clara, the Sugar Plum Fairy, the Mouse King and, of course, the Nutcracker Prince return to the stage this holiday season in what the Singletary Center calls “the biggest Christmas experience of the year.”

A holiday tradition, The Nutcracker at the Lexington venue promises “larger than life” props, a growing Christmas tree, as well as Russian-made sets and costumes.

Platinum and Gold Circle ticket holders also can expect gifts of a nutcracker doll and the Moscow Ballet Book.

DEC. 18, Singletary Center for the Arts, Lexington, (859) 257-4929, singletarycenter.com

OCT. 26, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, (877) HIT-SHOW or (859) 236-4692, nortoncenter.com

ALTON BROWN LIVE: EAT YOUR SCIENCE Who knew cooking was so scientific and entertaining?!

Alton Brown apparently does, and he brings his scientific/ cooking/music show to the EKU Center for the Arts this fall. According to an EKU press release, audiences can expect “all-new EVERYTHING, including songs, new comedy, new puppets, and bigger and better potentially dangerous food demonstrations.”

Brown also promises a performance featuring things he was never allowed to do on his popular Food Network show, Good Eats.

NOV. 16, EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, (859) 622-7469, ekucenter.com 38

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1984

“… Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.”

— George Orwell, 1984 From Orwell’s imagination came a society that brought us Big Brother. The Paramount Players are now bringing

his 1949 dystopian novel to life on the stage this season with 1984, where society lives under a totalitarian, intrusive government. The Paramount Arts Center describes the production as “both powerful and disturbingly provocative.”

FEB. 2-3, Paramount Arts Center, Ashland, (606) 324-0007, paramountartscenter.com

FEB. 24, SKyPAC, Bowling Green, (270) 904-1880, theskypac.com

AMAZING GRACE

BOB EUBANKS AND THE NOT SO NEWLYWED GAME

Longtime host of television’s The Newlywed Game Bob Eubanks emcees what promises to be a hilarious evening of games and prizes for eight lucky (or unlucky, depending on one’s point of view) married couples. With the same format as the TV show, The Not So Newlywed Game features couples who are quizzed on just how well they know their spouses as they vie for a $100,000 prize.

Eubanks also will share backstage stories while playing clips from the original show.

Not many people have never heard “Amazing Grace,” and for the millions who have, it’s a song that can stir strong emotions at the most poignant moments. Now, audiences can discover how the song came about with The Carson Center’s production in March.

The venue bills the show as a “captivating tale of romance, rebellion and redemption,” about the song’s creator, John Newton, who wrote the hymn following his survival of a storm at sea during Britain’s slave-trading era.

MARCH 11, The Carson Center, Paducah, (270) 450-4444, thecarsoncenter.org

THE MUSIC OF PRINCE

FEB. 9, RiverPark Center, Owensboro, (270) 687-2770, riverparkcenter.org

HOWIE MANDEL

Fans in the Bowling Green area can see him up close at the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center in February.

It all began with a dare nearly 40 years ago, when Howie Mandel was challenged to take the stage at a comedy theater. His career then skyrocketed to include successes on television, stage and film.

Mandel now serves as a judge on America’s Got Talent, but still takes his comedy on tour to venues across the country.

His death in April 2016 shook the entertainment industry and his countless fans around the world. But Prince’s music comes alive on stage once again as The Louisville Orchestra, tribute singer Marshall Charloff and Windborne Music join forces in April to present The Music of Prince.

The show features full rock lighting and a lineup of hit Prince songs such as “Little Red Corvette,” “When Doves Cry” and “Purple Rain,” to name a few.

APRIL 20, Kentucky Center, Louisville, 1-800-775-7777, kentuckycenter.org

SEASON 2017-2018

grandtheatrefrankfort.org freda PAYNE • one NIGHT in MEMPHIS • QUEEN machine • Jack HANNA WYNONNA • RIDERS in the SKY • Judy COLLINS quartet • BTG - Itʼs a WONDERFUL LIFE TAPESTRY FLAMENCO vivo • national PLAYERS - the GREAT gatsby • george WINSTON • ASLEEP at the WHEEL • sam BUSH U N E /!

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CULTURE

Off the Shelf

“Ann H. Gabhart captures a fascinating slice of Appalachian history . . . bringing it to life as only a native Kentuckian can.”

—Laura Frantz, author of A Moonbow Night

When a young woman’s plans for her future fall apart at the close of World War II, she discovers new purpose as a midwife in the hills of Kentucky—and a possible chance at new love.

AnnHGabhart.com

N Available wherever books and ebooks are sold.

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KEEPING PRIORITIES People Over Politics

By Steve Beshear and Dan Hassert A Stronger Kentucky, Inc. $22.66 (H)

Steve Beshear dedicates his post-term governorship memoir, People Over Politics, to his wife, Jane, along with both his own and all of Kentucky’s grandchildren, “who would benefit from a return to civility and common sense.”

The tone of the book, co-authored by former journalist and his speechwriter Dan Hassert, is authentic in presenting the eight years of the Beshear administration, 2007-2015.

The book reflects on a host of issues, starting with making tough choices in an economy in severe recession and handling the state’s challenges involving education, addiction, religious rights, state pensions and

Effects of a Great Conflict

Time and Color

Although the fighting took place half a world away, World War I impacted Kentucky’s Kentucky and the politics, Great War: World economy and War I on the culture.

Home Front

By David J. Bettez ResearchUniversity Press ing in county of Kentucky clerks’ offices, $45 (C) historical societies and libraries, author David J. Bettez visited more than half of Kentucky’s 120 counties looking for recorded history. He also scoured Kentucky newspapers, such as the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Lexington Herald and the Kentucky Post for reports about the conflict during the war years, 1914-1918.

Well-researched with detailed endnotes, this book examines an often-overlooked era in our history.

Bettez also is the author of Kentucky Marine: Major General Logan Feland and the Making of the Modern USMC. Bettez grew up in Lexington and was educated at the University of Kentucky. After serving as director of the Office of International Affairs at UK, he retired and currently lives in Scott County.

Guyla Ann Conway has written a children’s tale about patience. Twin boys Brooks and Lane wait with Where Was the their Big Yellow grandmother, School Bus? Gigi, for their

By Guyla Ann older brother, Conway, illustrated Davis, to come

by Gary Sanchez Heart to Heart home from his Publishing last day of $18.99 (P) kindergarten so their summer can finally begin. As they wait, the twins mistake all sorts of things—a green garbage truck, a red car and an orange truck, to name a few—for the big yellow school bus that will bring their brother home. Time passes, and just when the boys can’t seem to wait anymore, the big yellow school bus arrives with their big brother.

Where Was the Big Yellow School Bus? has two main focuses: time and color. Color pops onto the pages with Conway’s descriptions of the different items the boys mistake for the bus.

She adds interest to the book by making each page like a “seek and find,” where young readers must search for the different times hidden in the illustrations.

A former teacher, Conway lives in Muhlenburg County.

— Deborah Kohl Kremer

— Alex Sandefur

(P)-Paperback (C)-Clothbound (H)-Hardback

political partisanship. Of the latter, the Democrat Beshear shares many positive examples of working well with Republicans, including governors in adjacent states. The secret, he confidently attests, is in passionately emphasizing people’s needs as the first priority, understanding “the politics will follow,” and then having the courage and persistence to stay true to that goal. For this, Beshear fairly pleads as he recognizes the looming need for such today.

A highlight of the 368-page tome are dozens of anecdotes about those with whom Beshear has lived and worked, mostly of the good-natured variety that would be expected from the successful son of a Baptist minister from a small western Kentucky town.

BOOKENDS A new book tells the story of the saving of the 1791 Cane Ridge Meeting House in Paris, Kentucky. The Cane Ridge Preservation Project started in 1922 in Bourbon County after the church meeting house closed and faced many challenges on the way to being a model of historic preservation. This account is a tribute to the staying power of the effort.

Author and former Cane Ridge co-curator Robert W. Steffer, who now lives in Toronto, Canada, conducted meticulous research on the project along with his wife, Diane, who has since died.

The 378-page softcover book is available for $25 from the publisher, The Cane Ridge Shrine, Inc., P.O. Box 26, Paris, Kentucky 40362.

PRESERVATION!

— Steve Flarity

A Look Back Set in 1943, I’ll Be Looking at the Moon is told by 12-year-old Maggie Beeler, who gives an account I’ll Be Looking at of life in a small the Moon fictional

By Shirley Spires Kentucky town Baechtold during World Dorrance War II. Publishing Co. $14 (P) Maggie shows how the war affected average families, portraying how they made do with what they had, and she describes the patriot volunteerism that swept the country. She feels the stresses of war as she watches local boys not much older than herself go off to fight.

Society was different in the 1940s, but Maggie questions segregation when she wonders why African Americans must sit in the balcony when seeing a movie and why someone who is homosexual feels the need to hide it. She experiences some of the prejudices herself when she realizes there are people who do not accept her German-born grandfather, as the country fights a war against that country.

Retired from Eastern Kentucky University’s English department, author Shirley Spires Baechtold lives in Richmond.

Saturday, September 16, 2017 Commencing at 1:00 PM In the Bourbon County Courthouse, Paris, KY ORATORS INCLUDE: • Stephen Aron, Professor & Chair, UCLA Department of History

“The Dilemmas of Daniel Boone” • Daniel Kurt Ackermann, Curator, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts

“ Becoming Kentucky: Cultural Confluence in the Decorative Arts of Early Kentucky” • Estill Curtis Pennington, Art Historian

“Kentucky: The Far West of the Old South in Romantic Art” For checks & reservation requests:

Duncan Tavern 323 High Street Paris, KY 40361 (859) 987-1788 Tavern and Courthouse Tours on Saturday Morning.

Order online at: https://duncantavern.eventbrite.com Sponsors Include: The Josephine Ardery Foundation • Mack & Sharon Cox • Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey Linda and Jerry Bruckheimer • Kentucky Monthly • First Southern National Bank • Buckner and Susan Woodford Charitable Fund at the Bluegrass Community Foundation

— Deborah Kohl Kremer S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

41

VOICES

Past Tense/Present Tense

I Speak Kentucky, Thank You Very Much

BY BILL ELLIS

I

recall some years ago, a reader chastised me for writing though they mock us, what can you expect from people in Kentucky Monthly about the merits of iced tea. She who say “youse guys.” “Guys” has now infected our own claimed that I should not be frivolous and should write homeland, much to my displeasure. about more important things. So, if this column turns you From my wife with western Kentucky, particularly off, I am sorry.

Graves County, roots, I have picked up “carrying” you to I have worked hard to rid myself of racist, misogynistic, town and “out of pocket,” when I will be leaving home. anti-foreign and other prejudices, slurs and jokes from my If I am feeling a bit ill, I am “peak-ed,” or if my thoughts and language over the years. There was a lot of condition worsens, I am “sickly poor.” When recovering, I this around when I was am “on foot and taking growing up and still is, nourishment,” and then unfortunately. hopefully progress to feeling How we use and pronounce “right pert.” When “fit as a words continues to fascinate fiddle,” a Kentuckian is truly me. I know only the English healthy. language well, and, though I If I display false courage, try to write a standard according to my old Shelbyville American version or Modern football coach, “I am shooting Language Association format, I a scared stick.” However, I try speak a variant of Kentucky “to keep a stiff upper lip.” An English.

English friend once told me he I was brought up on the learned during World War II outskirts of a small town near to “keep your pecker [chin] the big city of Louisville, up” when discouraged. If I said which I still pronounce as this to an American, he or she “Looavill.” We Shelby might punch me in the nose or Countians thought call the police. pronouncing it Louieville was My wife, Charlotte, has a bit highfallutin’. My always been “pretty as a grandmother Stratton, who picture,” but alas, I have lived on Buzzard Roost Pike always been “ugly as a mud just a few miles off U.S 60 near The famous Florence Mall water tower in Boone County fence.”

Clayvillage, always pronounced From my childhood, I firmly the name of the county seat as “Shubvill,” but Cropper, believe that “a fool is born every minute” and “a penny Waddy and Bagdad always came out as spelled. saved is a penny earned” as my pop taught me. I “never I can speak as an “academician” when I am delivering a look a gift horse in the mouth.” paper or talk if I care to, but for the most part I still carry Although a male, I have sometimes “been madder than a on conversations with what I learned as a youth. I don’t say, wet hen.” I am more often “happy as a lark [or clam],” “wasn’t,” but pronounce the word as “wudunt.” I don’t say particularly after the recent birth of a great-grandson. “ain’t” often but will in the proper company. If truth be Though some of my friends may think I am “sharp as a told, I enjoy pronouncing “naked” as “nekkid” as it was on tack,” others may find me “dumb as a snake” or a “dumb as Snow Hill in the 1950s. a sack of rocks” or “box of hammers.” The worst my Kentucky accents—or accents anywhere, for that enemies can claim is that yours truly is “two bricks shy of matter—have always fascinated me. The English, Scots, a load” and that my “elevator does not go all the way to Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Irish all have the top.” their versions, as do all Americans. From several variants in Though “skinny as a rail” as a kid, I am afraid that I am Appalachia to northern Kentucky (with its Cincinnati approaching being “fat as a hog” in my 70s. influence) to Louisville to central Kentucky to western All the foregoing proves that a true Kentuckian is never Kentucky and the Jackson Purchase (and its Southern-ness), at a loss for words and colloquialisms, albeit difficult there is much variety. I love it all. My northern Kentucky sometimes for a true Yankee to understand. friends taught me to pronounce “goetta” correctly, which I I was taught: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try enjoy eating but not as much as country ham. again.” So, “as long as the creek don’t rise,” I will be back Added to my accent are a plethora of old sayings, in the next issue “hard to tear” and “hell-bent for election” clichés, proverbs, adages, aphorisms and whatnot. I say with another offering. “y’all” with its true Southern plural meaning, never singular as Yankees often accuse us Kentuckians of doing. Yeah, Readers may contact Bill Ellis at historian@kentuckymonthly.com 42

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

TRAVEL

KTIA Signature Fall Events ach quarter, the Kentucky Travel E Industry Association spotlights Signature Events for the season.

Following is a sample of the state’s prime activities for the fall.

Festival of the Horse, Sept. 8-10, downtown Georgetown, georgetownky.com. A Scott County tradition since the 1980s, this event provides a fun-filled weekend celebrating the role of the horse and its heritage. Included are live entertainment, arts and crafts, food, parades and, of course, horse shows.

Fall Arts Festival, Sept. 10, Josephine Sculpture Park, Frankfort, (502) 352-7082, josephinesculpturepark.org. The fest features live music, dance, demonstrations and activities such as book binding, sculpture, printmaking, painting, pottery wheel and fabric dyeing. Art scavenger hunts, walking tours, hot air balloon rides and food trucks are all part of the fun. Advanced workshops, such as glass blowing and metal casting, are available for a small fee.

Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Sept. 11-17, various locations, Bardstown, (502) 348-3623, kybourbonfestival.com. The festival celebrates the passion and art of making great Kentucky bourbon. Guests can sample fine bourbon, enjoy live entertainment, witness unique competitions, and indulge in Southern cuisine. This event is one of the Commonwealth’s leading community festivals, saluting and showcasing the industry, along with the storied history of Kentucky’s most popular spirit. It has been named one of the nation’s leading event experiences by USA Today, the Southeast Tourism Society, the American Bus Association and the Kentucky Travel Industry Association.

Hatfield McCoy Heritage Days Festival, Sept. 22-24, Pikeville, 1-800-844-7453, tourpikecounty.com. “The feud is over; let the fun begin!” Expect plenty of friends, food and fun during this festival. A wealth of activities is planned, including live music, a farmers market, a Hatfield and McCoy Brew Fest, a Ruff Tuff Cuss Race, classic cars and drag racing, plus a service at the McCoy Well.

HarvestFest at Shaker Village, Sept.

23-24, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, (859) 7345411, shakervillageky.org. Celebrate autumn with this down-home harvest event. Take

Explore

a hayride, climb hay stacks and compete in the farm olympics. Shop for honey, breads and jams at the Harvest Market, meet the farm animals, and tour the apple orchard. Enjoy live music, food trucks and much more!

HarvestFest: Eat! Drink! Danville!, Oct. 7, Main Street, Danville, (859) 236-2361, danvillekentucky.com. HarvestFest is one of the best nights in Danville. This downtown fest is a fun celebration of what makes the city unique. Known as the “City of Firsts,” Danville has become a cultural hub in central Kentucky, and this is what HarvestFest is all about— good music, good food and good drinks!

Lions Club Arts & Crafts Festival, Oct. 7-8, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, (270) 869-1615, lionsartsandcrafts. com. In its 45th year, this event features a variety of arts and crafts, food, music and games for all.

Audubon State Park is perfect for relaxing and enjoying the rich culture of art and handmade crafts.

Turning of the Leaves, Oct. 14, Main Street, Augusta, (606) 756-2183. This event spotlights local and regional artists, crafters, agribusinesses and food. Music, free trolley rides, children’s activities and vendors are all part of the fun. Visit this unique river town and help celebrate the arrival of fall.

Light Up Shelbyville, Nov. 11, Main Street, Shelbyville, (502) 633-5029. This colorful annual Christmas event should be part of your tradition! There are choirs singing carols on the Old Courthouse steps, school activities, food vendors and the pièce de résistance: the lighting of the Shelbyville Christmas tree. Plus, downtown businesses will be open for shopping.

Light Up Simpsonville, Nov. 18, Wiche Park, Simpsonville, (502) 722-8793. Join the mayor and city commissioners as they prepare a free chili supper, complete with drinks, sides and dessert for attendees. Santa and his friends will be on site to help usher in the holidays.

The Kentucky Travel Industry Association names its Signature Events four times a year. To be eligible, festivals or events must be recommended or produced by a KTIA member. A panel of impartial judges selects the winners for each season.

For more information, phone (502) 223-8687, email info@ktia.com or visit KTIA.com.

Illustration by Annette Cable.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

43

OUTDOORS

Gardening

Garden ‘Chat’ Room

BY WALT REICHERT

I

n my job as an Extension horticulture guy, I get hundreds of gardening-related questions every week.

Sometimes, it seems like hundreds every day. I thought I would pass along some of the most common ones I’ve had this past season. Maybe some of my Kentucky Monthly readers are having some of the same issues.

Q: Why so many Japanese beetles this year?

A: Dr. Lee Townsend, University of Kentucky Extension entomologist, explains that when we have a wet July, Japanese beetle grubs hatch well, and thus, there are more beetles the following season. We have had two wet Julys in a row, so their numbers continue to swell. Most of the damage they do is cosmetic, but don’t let them defoliate small trees or shrubs, or you might lose them. Sevin, malathion or pyrethroids will kill them. Alternatively, if plants are small enough, you can cover them with a spun polyester fabric that lets sun and water in but keeps insects out.

Q: I have a 4-year-old lilac that just suddenly dried up and died. What happened?

A: Usually when established shrubs suddenly die, it is a drainage issue. But it happened when the weather was hot and dry? Yes, that’s because roots rot away during wet weather, and when it turns hot and dry, the plant’s remaining roots aren’t able to pump enough water to the leaves. Heavy clay soils encourage root rot, and lilacs are among the plants that are especially sensitive. You might try replacing lilacs with viburnums where the soil is heavy clay.

Q.: Moles are tearing up my yard. Will that castor bean oil or those sonar whirly-gig things drive them off?

A: No, keep the voodoo remedies for your arthritis and warts. Homeowners often are surprised to learn that what they think are hundreds of moles destroying their lawn actually are just one or two. Moles are territorial and won’t let other moles around. That said, the best control is to use a mole trap to catch it (Yes, it kills the mole, but it is trespassing after all, which incurs the death penalty!), or you can buy a poisoned worm product, which look like gummy worms, and put those in the runs. The moles think they are real worms, eat them and die. Dead and buried, all in one fell swoop. Those are the only effective ways to rid your lawn of moles.

Q: My lawn was full of violets last summer. Pretty purple flowers, but I don’t want them in my lawn. What can I do?

A: Wild violets like damp, compacted soil—places where grass is not happy—so they get a start there and march out across the lawn. Many people appreciate their small purple flowers, but they do mess with the looks of a lawn. Small patches can be pulled out; be sure to get the root. If the lawn is full of violets, you can use a brush killer containing triclopyr to kill them. The brush killer, believe it or not, will not harm the grass if used according to label directions. You may have to spray the violets twice before achieving good control. Remember, the best defense against

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

lawn weeds such as violets is to keep the good grasses growing well; don’t mow too short and fertilize in the fall, not spring.

Q: Last year, the first tomatoes of the season had nastylooking, leathery, rotten spots on the bottoms. Is there anything I can do to prevent that next year?

A: The earliest tomatoes are often afflicted with blossomend rot, which is a nutritional condition. The rot is a result of the plant not being able to take up calcium while it was young and the soil was cool. That’s why you tend to see rot on the first set of tomatoes and not so much later in the season. Once the soil warms, blossom-end rot tends to disappear. Next year, don’t plant too early and keep the soil evenly moist so the plant can process calcium. This fall get a soil test done to make sure there is enough calcium in the soil. By the way, products sold to end blossom end rot are a waste of money.

Q: I seem to get a lot of black gnats flying around my kitchen where I have a shelf full of houseplants. Is there something I can do to eliminate them?

A. You are probably seeing fungus gnats. Fungus gnats lay eggs in the top inch or so of soil in the pots. The eggs hatch, and the gnats fly around in your face for a few days before going to gnat heaven. You can buy soil insecticides that will kill them, but the easiest control is to make sure the pot dries out on top before watering. Damp soil is conducive to egg laying and hatching. If the soil dries, the eggs and larvae die. Make sure the soil is dry in the top half-inch or so before watering, and your gnats should disappear in a few days. If you can’t wait that long, you can buy sticky, yellow triangles that you place among the plants to snag the gnats.

Q: We had a beautiful Colorado blue spruce that suddenly lost most of its needles from the bottom up. Only about a third of the tree is left. What happened, and what can we do to save it?

A. It’s likely you are seeing the result of a disease called needlecast, which first turns the needles a purplish brown, and then they fall off. It is likely a result of the warm, wet summers we have had the past two years. The spruce grows well in Colorado, where it is normally cool and dry. Bring it to a warm, wet place, and diseases become a problem. If the tree has lost more than two-thirds of its needles, it’s probably a goner. If most of the needles are still on the tree, you can rake up the needles on the ground and dispose of them. If it turns dry, keep the tree well-watered. In the spring, the tree can be sprayed with a fungicide containing chlorothalonil when new growth begins and about every two to three weeks for up to three or four sprays. You also can fertilize the tree in spring with a high-nitrogen fertilizer to encourage new growth.

Readers can reach Walt Reichert at gardening@kentuckymonthly.com

OUTDOORS

Field Notes

The Trouble with Doves

BY GARY GARTH “Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark; for the waters were on the face of the whole earth; then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.”

— Genesis 8: 8-9, KJV

M

Courtesy of KDFWR

y mother was a Missouri farm girl who grew up in a family of hunters, married a hunter and gave birth to two sons who became hunters.

In season, wild game was a staple at our dinner table, accented with garden vegetables. I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world. And I was. We ate like kings. My father hunted close to home and in that time and place, deer and turkey had all but vanished from the landscape, although they later would return. But small game was plentiful, especially rabbits and squirrels, along with the occasional quail and waterfowl, although my father wasn’t much of a duck hunter. My mother was a fine cook and a marvel with wild game. The dishes were simple and delicious.

Rabbit stew.

Rabbit pot pie.

Rabbit rice casserole.

Quail, more of a rarity, would be braised, broiled, Dove hunter Dave Baker fried or roasted and, in what must have been saved for special occasions, served with cream sauce and rice.

Squirrels were common, and after my brother and I became proficient with a .22, they rolled into our house as though hauled in by conveyer belt. My mother cooked them every way imaginable, including barbecued. (Nearly four decades after the fact, I’m still searching for a taste for barbecued squirrel, although fried squirrel and creamed potatoes with a side of biscuits and gravy remain a favorite wintertime supper.)

It was only years later that I learned that my mother didn’t particularly care for squirrel or rabbit, but her men liked them, so she creatively turned these critters into an endless array of delicious dishes without comment or complaint. For the betterment of humanity, the selfless things wives and mothers do for husbands and sons should be imprinted on the genetic code.

One hot September day at the invitation of a friend, who was tagging along with his uncle, I was introduced to dove hunting. My friend’s uncle stationed me at the edge of a cornfield that backed up to a ditch, beyond which a few cattle were grazing. He made sure I was mindful of the hunter standing to my left (him) and left me baking in the

late summer sun with my dad’s well-worn 16-gauge Remington 870 and a box of short brass No. 8s, along with a strict warning not to shoot in the direction of the cattle, which I later learned he owned. For an hour or so, I broiled in the heat under a cloudless sky vacant of doves. Then, birds began to appear—first by ones and twos and then in bunches. Throughout the afternoon, doves flew like a whirlwind, twirling, whizzing and wheeling through the holes in the lead shot I was throwing at them. I’d shot most of my shells and failed to loosen a feather when my friend’s uncle appeared at my side. With some coaching, I managed to drop two doves.

I soon returned home, proudly showed the pretty gray birds to my mother and asked if we could have them for supper. She picked up one of the birds—still warm and slightly bloodied—and turned it over in her hand.

“Get them ready,” she said, meaning to clean them. “I’ll cook them for you tomorrow.”

She cooked the birds wrapped in bacon, which I later learned was to help keep the dark meat moist. I eagerly cut into one of the breast pieces, which is really about all there is to eat from a dove. I offered my mother a bite. She declined.

When I insisted, she laid her fork aside and said with a sternness that startled me, “I don’t eat doves.” Then quietly added, “The trouble with doves … well, son, it was a dove that Noah sent from the ark.”

You probably know the rest of the story: “And he stayed yet another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off; so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.”

According to the Biblical account, Noah would have had plenty of winged critters to send forth. For reasons unexplained, he chose a dove, which, in my mother’s view, afforded it a special status. I’ve since met a handful of others who share this view.

Kentucky’s dove season opens Sept. 1. The season is divided into three segments (Sept. 1-Oct. 26, Nov. 23-Dec. 3 and Dec. 23-Jan. 14), but most action happens during the first week of the season. Dove hunts are as much a social gathering as field sport. I will be in the field on opening day. My mother has been gone for many years, but I often feel her presence. Never more than opening day of dove season.

For details on the upcoming season, including a list of public dove fields, visit fw.ky.gov.

Readers may contact Gary Garth at outdoors@kentuckymonthly.com S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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CALENDAR

Let’s Go

7

September SUNDAY

MONDAY

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

2.

4.

5.

6.

9.

13.

Fall AQS Black Gold QuiltWeek, Festival, downtown downtown Paducah, through Hazard, through Sept. 16, Sept. 16, (270) 443-8783 (606) 487-1580

14.

Bands & BBQ, The Point, Carrollton, through Sept. 16, (502) 732-7036

20.

21.

22.

Alison Saar: Breach, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, through Dec. 3, (859) 257-5716

1

Labor Day

10.

Fall Arts Festival, Josephine Scuplture Park, Frankfort

11.

Kentucky Bourbon Festival, various locations, Bardstown, through Sept. 17, (502) 348-3623

12.

17.

18.

19.

0

Antique Show, Boone County Fair Grounds, Burlington

24.

Vintage Baseball Game, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611

Fall Evening Tour, Elmwood Stock Farm, Georgetown

Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384

25.

26.

Rockin' Thunder Jet Boat History Tours, Liberty Hall Historic Site, Frankfort, through Sept. 28, (502) 227-2560

2

More to explore online!

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Visit kentuckymonthly. com for additional content, including a calendar of events, feature stories and recipes.

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

15.

16.

Squash & Gobble Arts Bazaar & Fall Festival, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895

23.

Casey County Anderson Pumpkin Patch Apple Festival, County Burgoo Express, downtown Festival, Kentucky Railway Liberty, through downtown Museum, Sept. 23 Lawrenceburg, New Haven, through Sept. 24 through Sept. 24, (502) 549-5470

30.

Bowling Green International Festival, Circus Square Park, Bowling Green, (270) 779-3830



Jazz on the Lawn, Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington



3.



Highlanders HeroCon, Highlands Museum and Discovery Center, Ashland, (606) 329-8888

Let’s Go!

A guide to Kentucky’s most interesting events Bluegrass Region

15-16 Salvisa Ruritan Country Days Festival, Salvisa, (859) 613-2333 15-17 Spoonbread Festival, Memorial Park, Berea, spoonbreadfestival.com

September

1-3 Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, College Park, Winchester, 1-800-298-9105, danielboonepioneerfestival.com 1-3 Red, White & Boom, Whitaker Bank Ballpark, Lexington, wbul.iheart.com/featured/red-white-boom 3 Jazz on the Lawn, Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, henryclay.org 8 Martina McBride, Norton Center for the Arts, Danville, (859) 236-4692, nortoncenter.com 8 Seed to Feed Dinner Series, Royal Spring Park, Georgetown, localfeedky.com 8 Freda Payne, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org 8-10 Corn Maze & Pumpkin Patch, Devine’s Farm Market, Harrodsburg, also Sept.

15-17, 22-24 and Oct. 6-8 and 13-15, devinescornmaze.com 8-10 Kentucky State BBQ Festival, Wilderness Trail Distillery, Danville, wildernesstraildistillery.com 8-10 Festival of the Horse, downtown Georgetown, festivalofthehorse.org 9-10 Waveland Art Fair, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 9-30 Alison Saar: Breach, University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington, through Dec. 3, (859) 257-5716, finearts.uky.edu/art-museum 10 Fall Arts Festival, Josephine Sculpture Park, Frankfort, josephinesculpturepark.org 13 Jefferson Street Soiree, Jefferson Street, Lexington, jeffersonstreetsoiree.com 15-17 Fort Harrod Jazz & Art Festival, Old Fort Harrod State Park, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-3314, parks.ky.gov

16 Oxford Antique Market, Oxford Village Lane, Georgetown, (502) 370-7268

Boarding School Symposium, The Lexington School, Lexington, (716) 885-6780, buffaloseminary.org

12 Queen Machine, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org

18 Fall Evening Tour, Elmwood Stock Farm, Georgetown, elmwoodstockfarm.com/farmtours

13-14 Forkland Heritage Festival & Revue, Forkland Community Center, Danville, forklandcomctr.org

22-23 James Harrod Trust History Underfoot Cemetery Tour, Springhill Cemetery, Harrodsburg, (859) 734-7829

13-15 Boogie Nationals Car Show, Fort Boonesborough State Park, Richmond, (502) 863-3960, parks.ky.gov

22-24 Mountain Folk Festival, downtown Berea, berea.edu/mff

14-15 Kentucky Guild of Artists & Craftsmen Fall Fair, Indian Fort Theatre, Berea, (859) 986-3192, kyguild.org

22-24 Anderson County Burgoo Festival, downtown Lawrenceburg, kentuckyburgoo.com 23-24 HarvestFest at Shaker Village, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, (859) 734-5411, shakervillageky.org

15 Jack Hanna, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org

Louisville Region

24 Vintage Baseball Game, Waveland State Historic Site, Lexington, (859) 272-3611, parks.ky.gov 29-30 Bourbon Country Burn, Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington, through Oct. 1, bourboncountryburn.com 30 Forkland Lincoln Museum, Forkland Community Center, Danville, forklandcomctr.org October

September

1 Jammin’ at Jeptha! Jeptha Creed Distillery, Shelbyville, jepthacreed.com 1 Live! After Five, Fourth Street Live, Louisville, 4thstlive.com

6 Seed to Feed Dinner Series, Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm, Georgetown, oldfriendsequine.org

1-4 Kentucky Flea Market Labor Day Spectacular, Kentucky Expo Center, Louisville, (502) 456-2244, stewartpromotions.com

6 One Night in Memphis, The Grand Theatre, Frankfort, (502) 352-7469, grandtheatrefrankfort.org

2 Ghost Trek, downtown Bardstown, also Sept. 9, 16, 23 and 30, ghosthunter.com

6-28 Halloween Lights Drive Thru, Fort Boonesborough State Park campground, Richmond, parks.ky.gov 7-8 Battle of Perryville Commemoration, Perryville Battlefield, Perryville, (859) 332-8631, parks.ky.gov 11 Kansas Live in Concert, EKU Center for the Arts, Richmond, ekucenter.com 11 Buffalo Seminary at The Lexington School High School Placement Fair and

7 Garrison Keillor Live, Iroquois Amphitheater, Louisville, prairiehome.org/hosts/keillor 8 Sawyer Brown in Concert, Historic State Theater, Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 8-10 The Big Four Bridge Arts Festival, Big Four Bridge, Louisville, bigfourbridgeartsfestival.com 9 Henry County Arts & Crafts Guild Art Show, Henry County Fairgrounds, New Castle, (502) 845-4560 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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CALENDAR

Let’s Go 9 B3 Fest: The Festival of Bacon, Bourbon & Beer, Louisville Executive Aviation Hangar, Bowman Field, Louisville, b3fest.com 9 Rolling Fork Iron Horse Festival, downtown New Haven, (502) 549-3177, newhaven.ky.gov 11-17 Kentucky Bourbon Festival, various locations, Bardstown, (502) 348-3623, kybourbonfestival.com 21 Barton 1792 Distillery Sundown Series, downtown Bardstown, 1792bourbon.com

COSMETIC DENTISTRY SAME DAY PORCELAIN CROWNS AND BRIDGES PAINLESS ORAL SEDATION DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF SLEEP DISORDED BREATHING DENTAL IMPLANTS

U N C O M M O N

D E N T I S T R Y

8 5 9 . 2 3 6 . 4 3 04 | W W W .SU SANCOU ZE N S D MD . COM

22-24 Marion County Country Ham Days, downtown Lebanon, (270) 692-9594, HamDays.com 23 A Toast to Kentucky Wine Festival, Freeman Lake Park, Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 23-24 Pumpkin Patch Express, Kentucky Railway Museum, New Haven, (502) 549-5470, kyrail.org October

5 John Conlee in Concert, Historic State Theater, Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, touretown.com 6-8 St. James Court Art Show, Historic Old Louisville, Louisville, (502) 635-1842, sjcas.com 12-31 Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular, Iroquois Park, Louisville, through Nov. 5, jackolanternlouisville.com

Join the New Network of Care The medical field is always growing. Find where you fit it.

13 Shadows of Federal Hill Ghost Tours, My Old Kentucky Home State Park, Bardstown, also Oct. 15, (502) 348-3502, visitmyoldkyhome.com 13-15 Night of the Living Dead, Historic State Theater, Elizabethtown, (270) 765-2175, hardincountyplayhouse.com 14-15 Bardstown Arts, Crafts & Antiques Fair, downtown Bardstown, (502) 348-4877, bardstownmainstreet.com

Northern Region

spencerian.edu September

4627 Dixie Highway | Louisville, KY 40216 | 502.447.1000 For more information about program successes in graduation rates, placement rates and occupations, please visit spencerian.edu/programsuccess.

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

1-3 Heritage Days, Augusta, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com

7-11 The Moving Wall - Vietnam Veterans Memorial, General Butler State Resort Park, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov 8-10 Oktoberfest, MainStrasse Village, Covington, mainstrasse.org

Kincaid Lake State Park, Falmouth, kywoolfest.org

6-7 Haunted Trail, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Olive Hill, also Oct. 14, 1-800-325-0059, parks.ky.gov

9 Swingtime on the River, Augusta riverfront, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com

7 Kentucky Kruizers Saturday Night Cruise, Hometown Pizza, Carrollton, (502) 732-5010, visitcarrolltonky.org

9 Fraley Festival of Traditional Music, Carter Caves State Resort Park, Olive Hill, 1-800-325-0059, parks.ky.gov

13-15 Salt Festival, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, Union, (859) 384-3522, parks.ky.gov

9 Old Fashion Day, downtown Walton, (859) 485-4383

14 Turning of the Leaves Festival, Main Street, Augusta, (606) 756-2183, augustaky.com

10 Fall Festival, Dinsmore Homestead, Burlington, dinsmorefarm.org

14 Art Walk, downtown Carrollton, (502) 732-5713, visitcarrolltonky.org

15-16 Bands & BBQ, The Point, Carrollton, (502) 732-7036

14-15 Halloween Fall Fest, Jane’s Saddlebag, Union, (859) 384-6617, janessaddlebag.com

16 EweNique Art Walk, downtown Falmouth, (859) 394-3360

Western Region

4 Labor Day Celebration, downtown Paducah, paducah.travel

19 Kentucky Gathers Dulcimer Group, General Butler State Resort Park, lodge mezzanine, Carrollton, (502) 732-4384, parks.ky.gov

8 Friday Night Live, featuring Shooter Jennings, downtown Madisonville, 1-877-243-5280, visitmadisonvilleky.com 8-9 Gospel Music Extravaganza, Victory Church, Madisonville, 1-877-243-5280, visitmadisonvilleky.com

22-24 Newport Oktoberfest, Newport riverfront, newportky.gov

8-9 Music on The Ridge Music Festival, Beaver Dam Amphitheatre, Beaver Dam, (270) 298-0036, beaverdamtourism.org

23 Band of Helping Hands Blues Fest, Tower Park, Fort Thomas, bandofhelpinghands.com

9 Wooden Bridge Festival, 1872 Historic Island Wooden Bridge Park, Island, (270) 2130420, facebook.com/historicislandwoodenbridge

23 Northern Kentucky Craft Show, Owen County Fairgrounds, Owenton, (502) 514-2932

9 Monarch Butterfly Migration Mysteries, John James Audubon State Park, Henderson, also Sept 16, (270) 826-4424, parks.ky.gov

28-30 Tobacco Festival, downtown Carrollton, (502) 525-0502, visitcarrolltonky.org 30 Saturday in Carlisle Festival, Courthouse Square, Carlisle, (859) 289-7120 October

6-8 Kentucky Wool Festival, next to

5 ZIPLINES

UP TO 1900' LONG

September

17 Antique Show, Boone County Fair Grounds, Burlington, burlingtonantiqueshow.com

22-23 Pig Out in Maysville, US Bank parking lot, Maysville, (606) 564-4869, cityofmaysville.com

ZIPLINE DESTINATION!

PROFESSIONALLY GUIDED TOURS 300' ABOVE THE GORGE!

16 Sweet Owen Day, Courthouse Square, Owenton, (502) 563-5050 16-17 Simon Kenton Festival, Old Washington, Maysville, (606) 563-2596, cityofmaysville.com

KENTUCKY’S PREMIER

9-10 Trail of Tears Intertribal Pow Wow, Trail of Tears Commemorative Park, Hopkinsville, (270) 885-9096, trailoftears.org

Perfect for Weddings, Reunions, Retreats and more!

RESERVATIONS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

13-16 Fall AQS QuiltWeek, downtown Paducah, (270) 443-8783, paducah.travel 14-16 Antique Gas Engine & Tractor Show, Carson Park, Paducah, paducah.travel

Red River Gorge Ziplines& Cliffview Resort 455 CLIFFVIEW RD CAMPTON, KY 41301

CALENDAR

Let’s Go Historic Downtown Bardstown

15 MadCity Street Market, MadStreet Market, Madisonville, visitmadisonvilleky.com 16 Squash & Gobble Arts Bazaar & Fall Festival, downtown Greenville, (270) 338-1895, TourGreenville.com 22-23 Fall Fiber Festival, MAKE Studio, Paducah, makepaducah.com 23 Dragon Boat Festival, Paducah riverfront, riverdiscoverycenter.org 28 Illusionist Mike Super, Glema Mahr Center for the Arts, Madisonville, (270) 821-ARTS, glemacenter.org 28-30 Barbecue on the River, downtown Paducah, bbqontheriver.org 29 Arsenic and Old Lace, The Empress Theater, Owensboro, (270) 683-5333, theatreworkshop.org

History surrounds you in the Bourbon Capital of the World®.

Dine on a dinner train, spend the night in an old jailhouse, or peruse the scenic downtown shops. From Civil War museums to world-renowned distilleries, see it all in Bardstown, KY – the small town with big escapes.

www.visitbardstown.com | 800.638.4877

13-14 Hanson BBQ Blast-Off, Vanity Fair Outlet Mall East Parking Lot, (270) 871-1875, facebook.com/Hanson-Lions-Club135900333126759

INSIDE A STORIED HOME

September

1-2 225th Birthday of Logan County, Logan County Courthouse, Russellville, (270) 726-1678 1-2 23rd Anniversary Celebration, National Corvette Museum, Bowling Green, (270) 781-7973, corvettemuseum.org

Display until 2/14/2017

17 Activities for 2017 MacPhail Antler Artist Dan ning Faux Furs Donna Salyers’ Stun

October

13 Josh Turner, Owensboro Convention Center, Owensboro, owensborocenter.com

2016 DECEMBER 017 JANUARY 2

PLUS

Southern Region

thly.com

www.kentuckymon

VIEW OUR CURRENT ISSUE FREE AT

KENTUCKYMONTHLY.COM

8-10 Holley LS Fest, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, (270) 781-7634, lsfest.com 8-10 Hart County Civil War Days, downtown Munfordville, facebook.com/HartCoCivilWarDays 9 Fall Heritage Festival, Homeplace on Green River, Campbellsville, homeplacefarmky.org 15-16 Franklin Car Show, downtown Franklin, (270) 586-7609, franklinsimpsonchamber.com 15-16 Cow Days Festival, Public Square,

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

Greensburg, 270-537-3237, greensburgonline.com

15-16 Heritage Festival, downtown Horse Cave, facebook.com/horsecaveheritagefestival 21-23 Bluegrass Festival, Optimist Park, Vine Grove, vinegrovebluegrass.com 21-23 Casey County Apple Festival, downtown Liberty, caseycountyapplefestival.org 23-24 Civil War Living History Camp, Old Mulkey Meetinghouse State Historic Site, Tompkinsville, (270) 487-8481, parks.ky.gov 28-30 NMRA All-Ford World Finals, Beech Bend Raceway, Bowling Green, through Oct. 1, (270) 781-7634, nmradigital.com 30 Bowling Green International Festival, Circus Square Park, Bowling Green, (270) 779-3830, bginternationalfest.com 30 Seven Springs Sorghum Festival, Harry Irwin Farm, Edmonton, sevenspringssorghum.com

Eastern Region

October

6-28 Haunted Hall, Octagon Hall, Franklin, (270) 791-0071 13-14 Downtown Days, downtown Columbia, (270) 384-2501, columbia-downtowndays.com 13-14 Foothills Festival, downtown Albany, foothillsfestivalky.com 14 Oktoberfest Music Festival, Dueling Grounds Distillery, Franklin, (270) 776-9046 September

September Happenings in Western Kentucky

1 First Friday Art Walk and Car Show, downtown Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com

Friday Night Live featuring Shooter Jennings

1-3 Breathitt County Honey Festival, downtown Jackson, honeyfestival.blogspot.com

Gospel Music Extravaganza

Friday, September 8 – Saturday, September 9

5th Annual 9/11 Heroes Run

Saturday, September 9

2 Highlanders HeroCon, Highlands Museum and Discovery Center, Ashland, (606) 329-8888, highlandsmuseum.com

Illusionist Mike Super

Friday, September 8

Thursday, September 28

877-243-5280

www.visitmadisonvilleky.com

2-3 Honoring Our Veterans Pow Wow, K&S Farm, Corbin, (606) 528-6342, knahm.org S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

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CALENDAR

Let’s Go 4 Labor Day Celebration, Central Park, Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 7-9 Smoke on the Mountain, Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com 8-16 Bluegrass Festival, Poppy Mountain, Morehead, (606) 784-2277, poppymountainbluegrass.com 9 Col. Bill Williams Music Festival, Greenbo Lake State Resort Park Amphitheatre, Greenup, (606) 473-7324, parks.ky.gov 14-15 Appalachian Craft Days, Mountain HomePlace, Staffordsville, (606) 297-1850 14-16 Black Gold Festival, downtown Hazard, (606) 487-1580, blackgoldfestival.com 15-17 Poage Landing Days, downtown Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com 16 Arts & Eats, downtown Morehead, (606) 783.9857, rowancountyartscenter.com 22-24 Hatfield-McCoy Heritage Days, downtown Pikeville, (606) 432-5063, tourpikecounty.com 23 Taps and Caps – Pikeville Craft Beer Fest, East Kentucky Expo Center, Pikeville, tapsandcapspikeville.com 23 Crafters in the Park, Yatesville Lake State Park, Louisa, (606) 673-1492, parks.ky.gov 23-24 World Chicken Festival, downtown London, (606) 878-6900, chickenfestival.com

September 16, 2017 9:00AM – 4:00PM

Historic Downtown Greenville, KY

Featuring 100+ Artisan/Crafter Booths

29-30 Cave Run Storytelling Festival, Twin Knobs Recreation Area, Morehead, caverunstoryfest.org 30 Chilifest, 14th Street at Winchester Avenue, Ashland, 1-800-377-6249, visitashlandky.com October

7 Kentucky Apple Festival, downtown Paintsville, kyapplefest.org 13-15 The Addams Family, Jenny Wiley Mainstage, Pikeville, (606) 886-9274, jwtheatre.com 13-16 October Court Days, downtown Mount Sterling, mtsterlingcourtdays.com

TourGreenville.com 52

K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

For additional Calendar items or to submit an event, please visit kentuckymonthly.com.

Submissions must be sent at least 90 days prior to the event.

(Formerly known as Glen’s Creek Distillery)

Capital Cellars

227 West Broadway, Frankfort

Your Bourbon, Wine, & Beer Cafe

www.capitalcellars.com

FINE COFFEES ESPRESSO CAPPUCCINO LATTE Also offering pastries, breads, and sandwiches.

Free Wi-Fi, along with a collection of books and other literature on early Kentucky and Mason County history.

35 E 2nd St, Maysville, KY 606.564.9704

Colonial Cottage Restaurant 3140 Dixie Highway, Erlanger 859-341-4498 thecottagenky.com

LIKE KENTUCKY? Then you’ll love Kentucky Monthly Magazine Q Visit kentuckymonthly.com or call 1-888-329-0053 to subscribe

Farm House Inn Bed & Breakfast

735 Taylor Branch Road, Parkers Lake (606) 376-7383 www.farmhouseinnbb.com S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 • K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY

53

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XX

VOICES

Vested Interest

Mark Your Calendar

M

y fourth-great-grandfather came to Kentucky like so many others, to claim his reward for serving in the American Revolution. George Vest was 15 when he joined the Continental Line in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. He spent much of his military tours guarding the frontier (Kentucky and Tennessee) and was a member of Gen. George Rogers Clark’s force at Corn Island (Louisville) in 1778.

For the past 30 years, I’ve searched for George’s grave without any luck. George’s son, John, my thirdgreat-grandfather, is buried in the New Bethel Baptist Cemetery in Verona alongside most of my family.

George may be there, too, but there are no records to prove it, and the remnants of any marker are long since lost.

On Oct. 1, there will be a memorial marker dedicated to George by the Daughters of the American Revolution; the Sons of the American Revolution, of which I am a member; and the Society of the War of 1812, a conflict in which he also served. The event will be at Verona Vineyards, which is near the center of what was once the Vest family farm. Hopefully, descendants of each of George’s six children—John, Squire, Rutha, George Jr., Mary and Thomas—will make it.

The vineyard opens at noon, with house tours and a ceremony at 2 p.m. The festivities will include muskets, a cannon, men sporting tricorn hats and women in Colonial dresses. There will be flags—lots and lots of flags. The national president of the SAR and the state president of the DAR will speak. It will be quite the celebration, and all are welcome. Did I mention food?

Yes, there will be food. Also, Dan and Peggy Montgomery, the owners of Verona Vineyards, will unveil a limited edition George Vest Reserve wine, made from grapes from the Vest farm.

Seriously, all are welcome. All are invited. George is representative of Kentucky’s collective heritage. His original land grant was 100 acres in Shelby County. In 1805, he traded that tract for land in northern Kentucky, which he and his sons expanded to encompass a large slice of luscious southwestern Boone County. They were farmers, hunters, carpenters and tavern keepers.

••• You’ve seen those Ancestry.com commercials, where the people send away a saliva sample to find out their family history and are shocked by the results. That recently happened to me. I, too, was shocked.

First, you need a little background. A year ago, a distant cousin from Colorado named Len Vest came through Frankfort, and we met for breakfast at Frisch’s Big Boy. He is a descendant of John Daniel Vest, who, he believes, was the father of George, mentioned above. Being that John Daniel was born in 1705 and George was not born until 1760,

I’ve always suspected that John Daniel was George’s grandfather, but I’ve never been able to prove who George’s father was.

Not to get too deep STEPHEN M. VEST in the weeds here: Publisher & Editor-in-Chief These DNA tests look for genetic “markers.”

The number of markers you and another group of people share indicates how closely you are related. The second thing they look for is “genetic distance,” which is hard to explain, but the lower the number, the closer the relative.

My wife and kids got the DNA test for me for Father’s Day, and I swabbed my cheeks and sent it off to the laboratory for analysis. For six weeks, I waited for an email telling me that my results were ready. I was at work when the email came, and I shouted downstairs to my wife to ask her if she wanted to see my results.

With my dark complexion, I’ve always suspected some Native American heritage or some Mediterranean roots. I’ve always been told I look Italian or Greek or even Turkish, but my research shows nothing of the like.

I waited for Kay to climb the stairs of the Kentucky Monthly office complex with my finger on the button.

“This is so exciting,” I thought. “I’m finally going to know what’s been hiding in my family tree.”

“Hit the button, why don’t you?” Kay urged when she arrived. A drumroll, please … African, 0%; New World (Americas), 0%; Central/South Asian, 0%; East Asian, 0%; Middle Eastern, 0%; Jewish Diaspora, 0%; European, 99%+. Of the European ancestry, I am 51% Western and Central Europe, 32% British Isles, 13% Scandinavian and 3% Eastern Europe.

Then I clicked on possible family matches. No. 1 was Len Vest, my distant cousin from Colorado. We share 111 genetic markers with a genetic distance of “0.” In fact, the first six people on my list, all named Vest, have a genetic distance of 0. The next seven, also named Vest, have a genetic distance of 1.

“Wow,” I said. “Can you believe that?”

“No,” Kay said.

“You can’t believe that even though Len and I are six, seven or eight generations removed that we have a genetic distance of 0?”

“No, I can’t believe I climbed all those steps just to find out you’re a white guy.”

Readers, and those looking for a speaker for a church or civic group, may contact Stephen M. Vest at steve@kentuckymonthly.com

SEPTEMBER KWIZ ANSWERS: 1. C. Blanton’s; 2. B. Waltz; 3. B. Benham; 4. C. Bardstown; 5. Middlesboro; 6. C. Hazard; 7. B. Middlesboro; 8. C. Paris; 9. B. Dunnigan covered Harry S Truman’s campaign in 1948 and also had White House credentials despite working for a weekly newspaper; 10. C. Candid Camera with Alan Funt from 1961 to 1966.

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K E N T U C K Y M O N T H LY • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7

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