AshevilleBliss.com Daytrip: Discover the Bliss of Jonesborough Tennessee

International Storytelling Festival
Story of the Birth of the Storytelling Revival in Jonesborough TN. "...How storytelling in Jonesborough TN grew to become a National Storytelling Festival, the largest of its kind...."

Official Town of Jonesborough Website
".... Welcome to Historic Jonesborough, the oldest town in Tennessee.... We’ve been entertaining guests for almost 225 years... Andy Jackson opened his law practice in Jonesborough, and became a judge. As President, he spent time at our Chester Inn on his way back to the Hermitage in Nashville, and President James K. Polk spent time here too.... We’ve worked hard to not only preserve our historic buildings and character, but our cultural heritage as well. Jonesborough is the storytelling capital of the world. The National Storytelling Festival, started over 30 years ago, was the first celebration dedicated solely to the art of the storytelling.... With the completion of the new International Storytelling Center, there are storytelling events and activities going on all the time.... We love our music here too. Our area is considered the birthplace of country music, and it’s in our blood. We have free concerts downtown every Friday night from May through September with Music on the Square and music is prevalant during Historic Jonesborough Days in July.... Shop in our varied stores and eat in our quaint cafés and restaurants. Visit the Jonesborough/Washington County History Museum, the International Storytelling Center, and the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center....We love company..."

Music on the Square
"... Held each Friday evening May through September, Music on the Square is Americana at its best, featuring live performances by local and regional bands, storytellers, poets, and performance artists. Each week offers at least two different acts. Many of the shops in Jonesborough stay open for these events, and the restaurants are full of diners and dessert seekers. Folks can visit, chat, enjoy the music and meet new friends as the bands play a variety of bluegrass, Celtic, old-time, Blues or jazz. Now an official Jonesborough event, Main Street is blocked off to through traffic for these concerts and plenty of parking is found behind the Jonesborough Courthouse. Restrooms are available, and handicap access is available for parking and seating. Each concert begins around 7p.m.,and everyone is invited to attend and enjoy these concerts...."

Click on each of the dozens of categories to the left to uncover what makes the Asheville area so vital, so intriguing and so, well, UTTERLY BLISSFUL!

From Rolf Potts' Vagabonding blog:

I've never been one of those uptight literary types who thinks that you have to have actually read a book in order to recommend it to others. So I feel no trepidation in suggesting Eric Weiner's new travelogue-slash-memoir The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World The premise of the book is simple but intriguing-- here is Amazon's description:

Part foreign affairs discourse, part humor, and part twisted self-help guide, The Geography of Bliss takes the reader from America to Iceland to India in search of happiness, or, in the crabby author's case, moments of "un-unhappiness." The book uses a beguiling mixture of travel, psychology, science and humor to investigate not what happiness is, but where it is. Are people in Switzerland happier because it is the most democratic country in the world? Do citizens of Singapore benefit psychologically by having their options limited by the government? Is the King of Bhutan a visionary for his initiative to calculate Gross National Happiness? Why is Asheville, North Carolina so damn happy? With engaging wit and surprising insights, Eric Weiner answers those questions and many others, offering travelers of all moods some interesting new ideas for sunnier destinations and dispositions.

In the imaginary Netflix queue of books-that-I'm-planning-to-read, this one has just jumped to the top. By the way, why has no one started a Netflix for books? This question, and many more, I'll leave for another day.

Some of the Main Attractions in Jonesborough

Historic Jonesborough Dance Society
"... will hold community dances on the first and third Saturdays every month in the auditorium of the Historic Jonesborough Visitors Center at 117 Boone Street. Our dances are open to the public and feature live music in a smoke and alcohol free environment. No experience is necessary..."

The Lost Mountain String Band
"... Recorded in Jonesborough, TN, October 6th, 2007, at The Cranberry Thistle coffee house...." See another cut "...Live at Cutshaw Nation in Greeneville, TN on October 27, 2007..."

Another glimpse of Tennessee country music: Cherokee Mountain Boys in a bar in Jonesborough TN.