My old Kentucky home, Renfro Valley is steeped in country music history

Today, Renfro Valley is known as “Kentucky’s Country Music Capital,” a title the little town can easily lay claim to. The “Sunday Mornin’ Gatherin'” radio program is broadcast on more than 200 radio stations in the United States and Canada, and is the second longest-running continuous radio program in America.

Once promoted as “the town where time stands still,” Renfro Valley is still booming. Besides its popular Sunday morning broadcast, the 100-acre entertainment complex still draws over half a million visitors a year. Among them, I am sure there is someone like the child I was when I saw Loretta Lynn there. Someone who will realize the power of country music in a way they have never known before.

Renfro Valley Village is decidedly a family place. After all, one of its biggest attractions is a huge Christian bookstore. However, any hardcore fan of country music — and particularly those interested in the music’s origins — would enjoy a trip to the Valley. A staff of regular singers, pickers, and comedians perform shows throughout the day, and the organizers pride themselves on sticking to traditional country music.

The Valley also hosts a series of “headliner concerts,” which feature singers such as Patty Loveless, George Jones, Ralph Stanley, the Osborne Brothers, Don Williams, and — of course — Loretta Lynn (her shows continue to sell out far in advance). The Old Barn is still in operation, although most shows are held at the state-of-the art “New Barn.” The New Barn manages to keep the atmosphere of a real barndance while also employing all the modern lightning, seating, and acoustic necessities.

One of the biggest draws to Renfro Valley is its series of seasonal festivals. In July there is the Old Joe Clark Bluegrass Festival (ads advise patrons to bring their own lawn chairs), presenting some of the best acts working today. The series regularly features Dale Ann Bradley, IIIrd Time Out, and the Lonesome River Band.

The Appalachian Harvest Festival, held in early October, is three days of “old times.” It features round-the-clock music, as well as mule-drawn molasses making, a wagon train, clogging shows, craft demonstrations, and the hugely popular Country Music Talent Search. In late October there is the Fiddler’s Festival, with fiddlers from all over America converging for two days of one of the best-attended fiddle festivals in the world. In the winter there is Christmas in the Valley, listed as one of the top 10 events in Kentucky, with extensive light displays, strolling carolers, clogging elves, and all things Christmas.

Naturally the complex has everything tourists are looking for as well. There is an old country church, complete with a menacing pulpit and a bell you can ring (however, to ring the bell, you must donate to the large wooden box marked FOR THE ORPHANS), a rustic schoolhouse, and a working grist mill where you can buy cornmeal and molasses. The Country Music Store — reminiscent of Ernest Tubb’s Record Store in Nashville — carries many country albums that have become hard-to-find.

There are plenty of craft stores, a general store where you can buy everything from Fenton glassware to T-shirts to moccasins, a candy emporium, and the Lodge Restaurant, renowned for its generous portions of home-cooked food. A 300-site RV park is within walking distance of all the stores and the barns, and a motel and honeymoon cabins are present for those who prefer a flushing toilet and a soft bed.

Lair sold the complex to Warren Rosenthal, the founder of the Jerry’s Restaurant chain, in the late 1970s, and in 2000, Rosenthal gave the entire acreage to a foundation formed to build the Kentucky Country Music Hall of Fame. The $6 million facility is being built on the grounds of Renfro Valley and is expected to open in March 2002. Its first round of inductees will be announced later that year.

Country music lives at Renfro Valley. At all the shows there, the focus is on the music. Lair had a longstanding rule that egos did not exist in the Valley. He would not allow stars to be singled out. That’s the magic of the place. It’s all about the music, and about the way music brings us together. Like the Ryman or State Street in Bristol or the Bluebird Cafe, a walk inside the Old Barn at Renfro Valley makes one feel as if country ghosts are swirling around them.

The ghost of my childhood is still there, feeling that knot of togetherness rise up beneath my ribs. The ghosts of hundreds of fiddle-playing, banjo-picking, guitar-strumming fingers are there. Music from across the generations seems to vibrate the wooden floor. History lives there, too, and for any die-hard country music fan, it’s a place to be.