Come Folk with Us: The 2026 Tennessee Folklore Society’s Annual Gathering
Since 1934, the Tennessee Folklore Society has gathered people who care about the songs, stories, crafts, and customs that make Tennessee home. The Society took shape after the folksong collector John Lomax remarked that parts of the state were among the richest in folklore anywhere in the country, and the following year it launched the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, one of the oldest state folklore journals in the nation. Today, TFS is a statewide community of scholars, nonprofit workers, artists, and curious citizens devoted to documenting, celebrating, and advancing Tennessee’s traditional culture.
TFS invites everyone, members and newcomers alike, to Knoxville for its free Annual Gathering on Friday and Saturday, November 13–14, 2026, at the East Tennessee History Center.
The Gathering is part conference, part homecoming, and part front-porch conversation. Friday opens with a hands-on crankie workshop led by artist Ashlee Mays, where participants help build a community story that premieres that evening with live old-time music from Duck & Ryan. In between, hear how Tennessee cast the deciding vote for women’s suffrage in 1920, watch “These Mountains Are Home,” a 1976 Bicentennial film from WATE-TV returning to the screen after a single broadcast, and see a cassette rescued and digitized live by Noah Marr of Chattanooga Folk. Registered guests can also step inside the newly restored Eugenia Williams House, the long-hidden 1941 riverbluff estate designed by Knoxville-born architect John Fanz Staub (seating is limited at the Eugenia Williams House; separate registration is required).
Saturday fills the History Center with sound and story. The Epworth Old Harp Singers will raise their full-throated, unaccompanied harmonies from The New Harp of Columbia, a shape-note tradition rooted in Knoxville, and you are welcome to listen or lend your voice. Afternoon talks trace the curious history of Johnson City’s Dr. Enuf, follow the convict song “Roll Down the Line” back to Grundy County’s Lone Rock Mine, ask why bluesman Sleepy John Estes is so often overlooked, and explain why everyone is suddenly two-stepping again. The weekend ends with Honky Tonk Night at the Laurel Theater, featuring Russell Walker and Bootleg Radio, plus a two-step lesson for anyone new to the floor.
