Culture of Kentucky
Encyclopedia
Although Kentucky's culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
is generally considered to be Southern, it is unique in that it is also influenced by the Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
and Southern Appalachia in certain areas of the state. The state is known for bourbon
Bourbon whiskey
Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...
and whiskey distilling, tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
, horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
, and college basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
. Kentucky is more similar to the Upper South in terms of ancestry which is predominantly American. Nevertheless, during the 19th century, Kentucky did receive a substantial number of German immigrants, who settled mostly in the Midwest, along the Ohio river primarily in Louisville, Covington, and Newport. Only Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia have higher German ancestry percentages than Kentucky among Census-defined Southern states, although Kentucky's percentage is closer to Virginia's than the previously named state's percentages. Kentucky was a slave state
Slave state
In the United States of America prior to the American Civil War, a slave state was a U.S. state in which slavery was legal, whereas a free state was one in which slavery was either prohibited from its entry into the Union or eliminated over time...
, and blacks once comprised over one-quarter of its population. However, it lacked the cotton plantation system and never had the same high percentage of African Americans as most other slave states. With less than 8% of its current population being black, Kentucky is rarely included in modern-day definitions of the Black Belt
Black Belt (U.S. region)
The Black Belt is a region of the Southern United States. Although the term originally described the prairies and dark soil of central Alabama and northeast Mississippi, it has long been used to describe a broad agricultural region in the American South characterized by a history of plantation...
, despite a relatively significant rural African American population in the Central and Western areas of the state.
Kentucky adopted the Jim Crow
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
system of racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
in most public spheres after the Civil War, but the state never disenfranchised African American citizens to the level of the Deep South
Deep South
The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period...
states, and it peacefully integrated its schools after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education verdict, later adopting the first state civil rights act in the South in 1966.
The biggest day in horse racing, the Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
, is preceded by the two-week Kentucky Derby Festival
Kentucky Derby Festival
The Kentucky Derby Festival is an annual festival held in Louisville, Kentucky during the two weeks preceding the first Saturday in May, the day of the Kentucky Derby...
in Louisville. Louisville also plays host to the Kentucky State Fair
Kentucky State Fair
The Kentucky State Fair is the official state fair of Kentucky which takes place at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville. More than 600,000 fairgoers fill the of indoor and outdoor exhibits, eat a smorgasbord of food and ride hair-raising, adrenaline-pumping coasters during the 11-day event...
, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival
Kentucky Shakespeare Festival
'Kentucky Shakespeare', commonly called Shakespeare in the Park, is a cultural event which features free Shakespeare performances every summer in Central Park in Old Louisville . Begun as the Carriage House Players in 1949, it is the oldest free professional and independently-operating Shakespeare...
, and Southern gospel
Southern Gospel
Southern Gospel music—at one time also known as "quartet music"—is music whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...
's annual highlight, the National Quartet Convention
National Quartet Convention
The National Quartet Convention is an annual gathering of Southern Gospel quartets and musicians. It is currently held at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.-History:...
. Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is the fourth largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Daviess County. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about southeast of Evansville, Indiana, and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's...
's third largest city, gives credence to its nickname of "Barbecue Capital of the World" by hosting the annual International Bar-B-Q Festival
International Bar-B-Q Festival
The International Bar-B-Q Festival is an event held in Owensboro, Kentucky, every second weekend in May since 1979. The festival provides an opportunity for sampling many varieties of barbecued meats, including chicken, mutton, and burgoo. Cooking teams compete for the Governor's Cup, awarded to...
. Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green, Kentucky
Bowling Green is the third-most populous city in the state of Kentucky after Louisville and Lexington, with a population of 58,067 as of the 2010 Census. It is the county seat of Warren County and the principal city of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area with an estimated 2009...
's fourth (and soon to be third) largest city and home to the only assembly plant in the world
Bowling Green Assembly Plant
The Bowling Green Assembly Plant is a General Motors automobile factory in Bowling Green, Kentucky. It is a specialized plant assembling GM's Y-body sports cars, the Chevrolet Corvette and formerly the Cadillac XLR....
that manufactures the Chevrolet Corvette
Chevrolet Corvette
The Chevrolet Corvette is a sports car by the Chevrolet division of General Motors that has been produced in six generations. The first model, a convertible, was designed by Harley Earl and introduced at the GM Motorama in 1953 as a concept show car. Myron Scott is credited for naming the car after...
, opened the National Corvette Museum
National Corvette Museum
The National Corvette Museum showcases the Chevrolet Corvette, an American sports car that has been in production since 1953. It is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, off Interstate 65's Exit 28...
in 1994.
Old Louisville
Old Louisville
Old Louisville is a historic district and neighborhood in central Louisville, Kentucky, USA. It is the third largest such district in the United States, and the largest preservation district featuring almost entirely Victorian architecture...
, the largest historic preservation
Historic preservation
Historic preservation is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance...
district in the United States featuring Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
and the third largest overall, hosts the St. James Court Art Show
St. James Court Art Show
The St. James Court Art Show, colloquially called the St. James Art Fair, or just St. James, is a popular free public outdoor annual arts and crafts show held since 1957 in the Old Louisville neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky, in the St. James-Belgravia Historic District...
, the largest outdoor art show in the United States. The neighborhood was also home to the Southern Exposition
Southern Exposition
The Southern Exposition was a five-year series of World's Fairs held in the city of Louisville, Kentucky from 1883 to 1887 in what is now Louisville's Old Louisville neighborhood. The exposition, held for 100 days each year on immediately south of Central Park, which is now the St....
(1883–1887), which featured the first public display of Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
's light bulb, and was the setting of Alice Hegan Rice
Alice Hegan Rice
Alice Hegan Rice, also known as Alice Caldwell Hegan, was an American novelist.Born in Shelbyville, Kentucky, she wrote over two dozen books, the most famous of which is Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. The book was a best seller in 1902 and is set in Louisville, Kentucky where she then lived...
's novel, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a 1934 comedy-genre film, directed by Norman Taurog, and based on the 1901 novel by Alice Hegan Rice. It also appeared as a radio series between 1936 and 1938. It is one of two movies that feature a rare film performance by famed Broadway stage actress Pauline...
and Fontaine Fox
Fontaine Fox
Fontaine Talbot Fox Jr. was an American cartoonist and illustrator born near Louisville, Kentucky.Fox is best known for writing and illustrating his Toonerville Folks comic panel. It ran from 1913 to 1955 in 250 to 300 newspapers across North America.The cartoons are set in the small town of...
's comic strip, the "Toonerville Trolley.
The more rural communities are not without traditions of their own, however. Hodgenville
Hodgenville, Kentucky
Hodgenville is a city in and the county seat of LaRue County, Kentucky, United States. It sits along the North Fork of the Nolin River. The population was 2,874 at the 2000 census...
, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, hosts the annual Lincoln Days Celebration, and will also host the kick-off for the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in February 2008. Bardstown
Bardstown, Kentucky
As of the census of 2010, there were 11,700 people, 4,712 households, and 2,949 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,113 housing units at an average density of...
celebrates its heritage as a major bourbon-producing region with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival
Kentucky Bourbon Festival
The Kentucky Bourbon Festival is a weeklong event consisting of more than thirty events in Bardstown, Kentucky, United States, dedicated to celebrating the history and art of distilling bourbon whiskey...
. (Legend holds that Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
minister Elijah Craig
Elijah Craig
Rev. Elijah Craig was a Baptist preacher in Virginia, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky...
invented bourbon with his black slave in Georgetown
Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown is a city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,098 at the 2010 census. The original settlement of Lebanon, founded by Rev. Elijah Craig, was renamed in 1790 in honor of President George Washington. It is the home of Georgetown College, a private liberal arts...
, but some dispute this claim.) Glasgow
Glasgow, Kentucky
Glasgow is a city in and the county seat of Barren County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 14,200 at the 2000 census. The city is well-known for its annual Scottish Highland Games. In 2007, Barren County was named the number one rural place to live by Progressive Farmer magazine...
mimics Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland by hosting the Glasgow Highland Games
Glasgow Highland Games
The Glasgow Highland Games are a regional highland games and Scottish heritage celebration held annually in and near Glasgow, Kentucky. The main festival grounds are located at Barren River Lake State Resort Park, about from Glasgow, while most other events are held in the city proper.Glasgow is...
, its own version of the Highland Games
Highland games
Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &(-è_çà in Scotland and other countries as a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands. Certain...
, and Sturgis
Sturgis, Kentucky
Sturgis is a city in Union County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 2,030 at the 2000 census. The city was founded in 1886 and named for Samuel Sturgis, who owned the land now occupied by the city.-Geography:...
hosts "Little Sturgis", a mini version of Sturgis, South Dakota
Sturgis, South Dakota
Sturgis is a city in Meade County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 6,627 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Meade County. Sturgis is famous for being the location of one of the largest annual motorcycle events in the world, which is held annually on the first full week...
's annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally
The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is an American motorcycle rally held annually in Sturgis, South Dakota, usually the first full week of August.-History:...
. The residents of tiny Benton
Benton, Kentucky
Benton is a city in Marshall County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 4,197 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Marshall County....
even pay tribute to their favorite tuber, the sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
, by hosting Tater Day
Tater Day
Tater Day is a large festival in Benton, Kentucky.It was started in 1843 as a celebration of spring, and a time when all of the townsfolk would get together and trade in sweet potato slips, used to grow the plants. It is also the oldest continuous trade day in the United States, in which goods such...
. Residents of Clarkson
Clarkson, Kentucky
Clarkson is a city in Grayson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 794 at the 2000 census. Once called Grayson Springs after a nearby resort, the name was changed in 1882 to honor the resort's owner, Manoah Clarkson. It is known for its Honeyfest and is home to the The Walter T...
in Grayson County
Grayson County, Kentucky
Grayson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1810. As of 2000, the population was 24,053. Its county seat is Leitchfield. The county is named for William Grayson , a Revolutionary War colonel and a prominent Virginia political figure...
celebrate their city's ties to the honey industry by celebrating the Clarkson Honeyfest. The Clarkson Honeyfest is held the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in September, and is the "Official State Honey Festival of Kentucky."
Music
The breadth of music in Kentucky is indeed wide, stretching from the Purchase to the eastern mountains.Renfro Valley, Kentucky
Renfro Valley, Kentucky
Renfro Valley is a neighborhood located just off Interstate 75 in Mount Vernon, a city in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, United States. The community of Renfro Valley includes the Since being founded by local area native John Lair and others in 1939, Renfro Valley Entertainment Center has hosted...
is home to Renfro Valley Entertainment Center and the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame and is known as "Kentucky's Country Music Capital," a designation given it by the Kentucky State Legislature in the late 1980s. The Renfro Valley Barn Dance was where Renfro Valley's musical heritage began, in 1939, and influential country music luminaries like Red Foley
Red Foley
Clyde Julian Foley , better known as Red Foley, was an American singer, musician, and radio and TV personality who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II....
, Homer & Jethro, Lily May Ledford
Lily May Ledford
Lily May Ledford was an American clawhammer banjo and fiddle player. After gaining regional radio fame in the 1940s and 1950s as head of the Coon Creek Girls— one of the first all-female string bands to appear on radio— Ledford went on to gain national renown as a solo artist during...
& the Original Coon Creek Girls
Coon Creek Girls
The Coon Creek Girls were a popular all-girl "string band" in the Appalachian style of folk music which began in the mid-1930s...
, Martha Carson, and many others have performed as regular members of the shows there over the years. The Renfro Valley Gatherin'
Renfro Valley Gatherin'
Renfro Valley Gatherin' is a United States radio program based in Renfro Valley, Kentucky...
is today America's second oldest continually broadcast radio program of any kind. It is broadcast on local radio station WRVK
WRVK
WRVK is a radio station broadcasting a full service format centered around Classic Country. Licensed to Mount Vernon, Kentucky, USA, it serves the South Central Kentucky area.-History:...
and a syndicated network of nearly 200 other stations across the United States and Canada every week.
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...
star Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, actor, author, and social activist.After starting his career in the late 1980s as a singer/songwriter of contemporary Christian music, Chapman has since been recognized as one of the most prolific singers in the genre,...
is a Paducah
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah is the largest city in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase Region and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Tennessee River and the Ohio River, halfway between the metropolitan areas of St. Louis, Missouri, to the west and Nashville,...
native, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
rs The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
are closely connected with Muhlenberg County
Muhlenberg County, Kentucky
Muhlenberg County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 31,499. The county is named for Peter Muhlenberg. Its county seat is Greenville....
, where older brother Don was born. Kentucky was also home to Mildred and Patty Hill
Patty Hill
Patty Smith Hill is perhaps best known for co-writing the tune which became popular as Happy Birthday to You. She was an American nursery school, kindergarten teacher, and key founder of the National Association Nursery Education which now exists as the National Association For the Education of...
, the Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
sisters credited with composing the tune to the ditty Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth...
in 1893; Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
(Johnson County
Johnson County, Kentucky
Johnson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1843. As of 2000, the population was 23,445. Its county seat is Paintsville...
), and Billy Ray Cyrus
Billy Ray Cyrus
William "Billy" Ray Cyrus is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor and philanthropist, who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon...
(Flatwoods
Flatwoods, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 7,605 people, 3,114 households, and 2,282 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,691.9 people per square mile . There were 3,338 housing units at an average density of 742.6 per square mile...
). However, its depth lies in its signature sound — Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...
. Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...
, "The Father of Bluegrass", was born in the small Ohio County
Ohio County, Kentucky
Ohio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of 2000, the population was 22,916. Its county seat is Hartford. The county is named for the Ohio River, which originally formed its northern boundary. It is a dry county, which means that the sale of alcohol is restricted or...
town of Rosine
Rosine, Kentucky
Rosine is an unincorporated town in Ohio County, Kentucky, United States. Bill Monroe, The Father of Bluegrass, is not only buried in the town but also memorialized with a bronze cast disk affixed to the barn where his music remains alive. The community was named for the pen name of Jenny Taylor...
, while Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...
, Keith Whitley
Keith Whitley
Jackie Keith Whitley , known professionally as Keith Whitley, was an American country music singer. Whitley's brief career in mainstream country music lasted from 1984 until his death in 1989, but he continues to influence an entire generation of singers and songwriters...
, David "Stringbean" Akeman, Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones
Grandpa Jones
Louis Marshall Jones , known professionally as Grandpa Jones, was an American banjo player and "old time" country and gospel music singer...
, Sonny and Bobby Osborne
Bobby Osborne
Bobby Osborne is a bluegrass musician known for his mandolin playing and high lead vocals.Born December 7, 1931 in Leslie County, Kentucky, Bobby Osborne is known primarily for his collaborations with his brother Sonny Osborne in their band, the Osborne Brothers. He was a pioneer in conceiving the...
, and Sam Bush
Sam Bush
Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...
(who has been compared to Monroe) all hail from Kentucky. The International Bluegrass Music Museum
International Bluegrass Music Museum
The International Bluegrass Music Museum ) is a bluegrass music museum in RiverPark Center near downtown Owensboro, Kentucky, United States. The museum has inter-active exhibits, posters, costumes, live instrument demonstrations, and the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. The museum has...
is located in Owensboro
Owensboro, Kentucky
Owensboro is the fourth largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Daviess County. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about southeast of Evansville, Indiana, and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's...
, while the annual Festival of the Bluegrass
Festival of the Bluegrass
The Festival of the Bluegrass, located in Lexington, Kentucky, is the oldest bluegrass music festival in the bluegrass region of Kentucky. The festival takes place the first full weekend of June each year...
is held in Lexington
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
.
Kentucky is also home to famed jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
musician and pioneer, Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
(although this has been disputed in recent years). Blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
legend W.C. Handy and R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
singer Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett
Wilson Pickett was an American R&B/Soul singer and songwriter.A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100...
also spent considerable time in Kentucky. The pop bands Midnight Star
Midnight Star
Midnight Star is an R&B and electro-funk group that had a string of R&B hits in the 1980s.-Band history:The group was formed in 1976 at Kentucky State University by trumpeter Reggie Calloway, vocalist Belinda Lipscomb, guitarist/vocalist Melvin Gentry, bassist Kenneth Gant, multi-instrumentalist...
and Nappy Roots
Nappy Roots
Nappy Roots is an American alternative Southern rap quintet that originated in Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1995 and is best known for its hit single "Awnaw."...
were both formed in Kentucky, as were country acts The Kentucky Headhunters
The Kentucky Headhunters
The Kentucky Headhunters are an American country rock band. They were founded in 1968 as Itchy Brother, which comprised brothers Richard Young and Fred Young along with Greg Martin and Anthony Kenney...
, Montgomery Gentry
Montgomery Gentry
Montgomery Gentry is an American country music duo composed of vocalists Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry. The two began performing in the 1990s as part of a band which also included Eddie Montgomery's brother John Michael Montgomery, and founded the existing duo in 1999.Signed to Columbia Records,...
and Halfway to Hazard
Halfway to Hazard
Halfway to Hazard is an American country music duo composed of singer-songwriters David Tolliver and Chad Warrix. Though Tolliver and Warrix grew up in different towns in southeastern Kentucky, their band's origins are in Hazard, Kentucky, which was halfway between their hometowns.Their debut...
, as well as Dove Award
GMA Music Awards
The Gospel Music Association Dove Awards are presented annually by the Gospel Music Association for outstanding achievements in the Christian music industry. The awards are usually presented during a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee, that features performances by a number of the industry's newest...
-winning Christian groups Audio Adrenaline
Audio Adrenaline
Audio Adrenaline was a Christian rock band that formed in the late 1980s at Kentucky Christian University in Grayson, Kentucky. During the band's 17-year existence, they were awarded two Grammy awards, multiple Dove Awards and they released 17 number one singles. They were regular performers at the...
(rock) and Bride
Bride (band)
Bride is a Christian heavy metal/hard rock band formed in the 80s, by brothers Dale and Troy Thompson. During the band's peak years it was known for covering a wide range of musical styles and remains popular in places like Brazil...
(metal).
Cuisine
Hot Brown
A Hot Brown Sandwich is a hot sandwich originally created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, by Fred K. Schmidt in 1926. It is a variation of traditional Welsh rarebit and was one of two signature sandwiches created by chefs at the Brown Hotel shortly after its founding in 1923...
, a dish normally layered in this order: toasted bread, turkey, bacon, tomatoes and topped with mornay sauce
Mornay sauce
A Mornay sauce is a Béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Usually, it consists of half Gruyère and half Parmesan cheese, though some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, or white Cheddar....
. It was developed at the Brown Hotel in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. The Pendennis Club
Pendennis Club
The Pendennis Club is a private club in Louisville, Kentucky. It was established in 1881 and modeled in part on English gentleman's clubs. It took its name from William Makepeace Thackeray's novel Pendennis . The first clubhouse, acquired in 1883, was a former Belknap family mansion. Soon after...
in Louisville is the birthplace of the Old Fashioned
Old Fashioned
The Old Fashioned is a type of cocktail made by muddling dissolved sugar with bitters then adding alcohol, such as jenever, whiskey, or brandy, and a twist of citrus rind. The name references the combination's age: it is possibly the first drink to be called a cocktail...
cocktail. Also, western Kentucky is known for its own regional style of barbecue.