Last week, our team at Times Digital Group completed a documentary which celebrates the recent 2009 Harvard Innovation in Government Award presented to the City of Kingsport earlier in the year. This excellent presentation features interviews with city leaders and describes the ideas and passion that helped earn this recognition and we were glad to be a part of this year’s celebration.

There was a lot of stories about kids and candy this past weekend. That’s certainly what one might expect on Halloween, but there were plenty of parties going on for the big kids too and Downtown Kingsport had the biggest yet!

Granted – the weather was miserable. It rained almost all night, but that didn’t stop hundreds of people from attending Kingsport’s first Halloween Costume Pub Crawl.

Saturday night, GoTriCities and participating downtown venues hosted the event along with The Kingsport Chamber of Commerce and Action Rental. Besides the soaking rain, the creepy, yet delightfully cool crowds on Main Street were much larger than we expected.

It was cloudy Halloween morning and I was watching the radar intently throughout the day.

Like many others, I was one those last-minute shoppers in line at Halloween Express in Johnson City. Formerly Bennigan’s Restaurant, this vacant building serves as ground-zero for costumes, masks and ghoulish paraphernalia this time of year and the parking lot was full.

After deliberating over several options, I decided on the “Minister of Death.” Besides, it gave me a reason to wear makeup.

As I drove into Kingsport around 5.00, the streets were divided with orange cones carving the streets for runners. The police department were on hand in the gray weather keeping safe watch for athletes who were running in the inaugural Haunted Half Marathon.

The organizers of this event did an outstanding job in their first year with reports of over 400 runners participating in this year’s race. Around 3.00pm, these participants lined up in front of The Bonefire Restaurant on Main Street and followed a meandering downtown course which totaled 13.1 miles. ( Click here for photos )

The streets cleared quickly after the race and I turned my attention to the rib sandwich at The Bus Pit. That’s one of my favorite places to eat among downtown eateries and it was warm and cozy inside with the John Patton Band playing acoustic music in front of the restaurant.

Doug Beatty, one of the organizers of this day of Halloween happenings was having dinner with his family and he was happy to describe some of the events of the day.

“Other than a few sprinkles, the Haunted Half was great” said Beaty. “I was looking at the radar on my phone and right when the race started the clouds cleared up and when it was over the rain rolled back in.”

We were both hoping the rain would clear before the pub crawl, but it never did. Instead, with the Kingsport Train Station as a backdrop, it was a cold, dreary shower that keep the streets wet all night.

Dinner was great (as usual) and I made my way back to our office on Main Street to prepare arm-loads of camera gear. GoTriCities.com were planning on taking plenty of pictures and shooting live video – but first the costume.

Jared Bentley called me while I was staring in the office mirror.

“What’s up?” he bolted as soon as I picked up the phone.

“I’m putting on my base makeup – don’t ask.”

After all the getup was in place, we finally got all of our gear together and made our way back down to The Bus Pit. Although there were going to be live bands at The Kingsport Grocery, Stir Fry and Kaffe Blue, we wanted a live camera here at this venue because Spank was performing.

Spank is a popular dance band that specializes in an entertaining stage show, complete with lighting and deep set list of popular 80′s music.

After we got our cameras setup, we moved down the street to Kingsport Grocery Company which already had a crowd downstairs with costumed guests all over the restaurant.

A guy dressed in a Beetlejuice costume darted by me on the way out to smoke outside and I couldn’t help but mention his name three times as he passed by. There were all kinds of costumes – some comical and others creepy that included vampires, wrestlers, pimps, zombies, Fred Flintstone, Slash from Guns and Roses, hippies, devils, angels and tooth fairies all around.

Upstairs, the second floor was crowded too as the Annie Robinette Band was tuning their instruments.

Annie is from Bristol and a popular songwriter on the local circuit. She was in the spirit tonight too dressed in a renaissance pirate costume and sounded the best I’ve heard her in a long while. Her busy summer schedule has certainly refined the band’s mix of distinctive songs and covers that kindled the mood for the rest of the night.

Johnny Rasar plays bass for the band and I had to ask him about his guitar which had a Frankenstein mug worked into the finish.

We both agreed every musician should have a Halloween instrument for just the right night and tonight was indeed – one of those special occasions.

We set up our cameras and everyone was extremely patient with us as we turned on the strobe lights and began to broadcast live on the Internet. This was one of our early experiments with live broadcasts and although the online audience was small, we enjoyed opening up the lens and this event to people all over the country from our hometown Halloween party.

There was a steady stream of costumed party-goers for the rest of the night, but we wanted to move back down the street to The Bus Pit after Annie’s first set. It was still raining, but within a few moments, we were across the street and working our way through a line of people already gathered in hallway of this terrific downtown venue.

The Bus Pit was opened in the summer of this past year to coincide with the Twilight Alive concert series and although it’s had a rocky start, the room still has plenty of potential of becoming a great Kingsport nightclub.

It used to be the old maintenance garage where city and county buses were once repaired. One of its signature features is an authentic city bus parked just inside the front door that serves as the bar and centerpiece of this locale.

The stage in front was decorated with cob webs, Halloween streamers and creatures and Spank’s gear made the place look like a real concert venue.

Hailing from Bristol, Spank is probably the region’s most popular band. They don’t pretend to be anything other than an 80′s dance band and they carry with them one of the largest light shows of anyone in the area – complete with a glaring 15 foot truss spelling out the word “Spank” directly behind them.

Spank includes Tom Mann who fronts the band on vocals and guitar, Pete Dixon on guitar, Collin McHenry on bass and Ironman John Grayson on drums. Tonight, they were dressed with geeky musicians with horn-rimmed glasses.

Once they struck their first notes they never slowed down the rest of the night. Their usual entertaining stage show invite fans on the stage to get “spanked” with a blue and green sticker which people wear on their bums as a badge of honor.

The Bus Pit had more people tonight than we have seen before and everyone seemed to enjoy the drink specials from the “bar-bus.” When the band took a break, the Halloween contest featured some of the best outfits from the night.

First place winner for the women included a renaissance winch who created her costume from scratch and my favorite for the men – a costumed Steve Grindstaff who yelled into the mike, “Who makes a deal like Grindstaff?” Of which the crowd responded – NOBODY!

The rain made it hard for people to actually participate in a “Pub Crawl.” Stir Frye had “Scaryoke” and Kaffe Blue was open with the “Ghosts in The Woods Band.” I’m not sure how many people crossed over to Broad Street, but the ghouls and cartoons on Main Street were back and forth all night from The KGC to The Bus Pit.

Around midnight, both locations had sold out of the glowing green arm bands which permitted entrance into all venues but the crowds kept coming as the night-owls made their rounds.

Later, we found ourselves back at the Kingsport Grocery for the late-night deejay and talked to two young ladies who were in town from Wise, VA. They were having a great time on the dance floor and we had time for one more live broadcast before shutting down for the night.

This year’s Halloween Pub Crawl was a roaring success and I’m certain everyone had a great night to remember. Event planners are already talking about the next party, so stay tuned for more to come.

Downtown Kingsport is still struggling to become a top-of-mind destination for the weekend, but there’s no doubt that we have some great venues and superb entertainment on a regular basis. Unfortunately, that’s kind of spotty and we hope to work together with these merchants and share ideas to bring more great events into the heart of the city.

So if you missed this years event, you missed quite the spectacle.

There are plenty of photographs online this year as our photographers at GoTriCities captured more than 300 photos. Check those out at great Halloween photos from this year’s event and make sure you keep Downtown Kingsport on your radar for a great nightlife still in the works.

Unfortunately, it’s not always the glamorous news stories that bring attention to our hometown here in Kingsport. In fact, like most viral Internet stories, it’s the sensational or stupid stories that seem to attract the most attention

In the past we’ve caught attention for a variety of stories that were laughable and hardly glamorous here at Times-News.

Last week, we logged another “Dubious Achievement Award” for Kingsport, Tennessee and our tech folks saw plenty of traffic on a news story involving a shoplifter who bit a Walmart employee.

We first started to see Kingsport pop-up in the Twitter Universe with headlines from a parody website that reports on “Zombie activity” across the nation.

Did you know Kingsport was under an amber alert this past week too as the Zombie Nation caught wind of the headline?

I was surprised too when I heard popular late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon refer to the story too in his Monday night monologue on NBC. Fortunately, he left out the town’s name, but he did reference the story.

Fallons comments are here at the 4.00 time marker.

He states…”In Tennessee, A Walmart employee was bitten while trying to fend off a shoplifter. Fortunately, since it was a Walmart employee, there were no teeth involved.”

We must be thankful for the small things I presume and like they say – Any press is good press – or is it?

It’s been really busy the past few weeks as we begin to roll out several new websites we’ve been working on at GoTriCities. Our staff have completed some of their best work all year long this past week and we have received a lot of attention for the work.

Last week, we were proud to launch the new Kingsport Chamber of Commerce website which included lots of fan fare including an appearance on the Kingsport ChamberZone business television show with Bob Feagins and Laura Steel, a couple of presentations and a feature in the newspaper this past week with Chamber president Miles Burdine.

The new Chamber website is a exciting new improvement from their old site and features a ultra-intuitive distinction that makes it super easy to navigate. There are plenty of pages that promote their programs from Fun Fest to Keep Kingsport Beautiful and lots of events, promotions and videos throughout the website. The site features a complete directory of all Chamber members, a daily update for available jobs in the region and more.

Early traffic numbers show a two-fold increase in their traffic patterns so far and we’re excited about working with area businesses to promote their brands on the site in the coming months. We’re working with Accuforce to telemarket Kingsport businesses to extend new marketing opportunities on the site.

We end the month at GoTriCities with a slew of great websites ready to come out of the hangar. Our guys have been working on several projects this year and we’re finally ready to launch some wonderful new destinations and we’re proud to show them off.

Last week, we were excited to reveal a new non-profit organization that helps the homeless in our community.

Hope Haven Ministries, Inc. is a Christian, interdenominational, non-profit ministry that reaches out to homeless men, women and children who may be impoverished economically, educationally, emotionally and/or spiritually. We offer emergency shelter – safe, clean, temporary housing for those in distress. You have the opportunity here for a new start on life and a place to experience God’s love. Hope Haven is a step along the path of recovery, not a destination.’

The new website has a great new design that replaces their old one and includes an intuitive donation path that allows visitors and volunteers to commit resources and time to this important cause for our city.

Their slogan says it all ‘helping the homeless help themselves’ and so far they have helped hundreds of people in our city and we look forward to locking arms and helping them with their mission even more. Our guys did a great job with the site which features a custom content-management software which enables their staff to create regular updates and more.

Visit their new website at http://www.hopehavenkpt.org and find out more about Hope Haven Ministries in Kingsport.

Funnel Clouds Form on Interstate 1-81 from David Cate on Vimeo.

Friday night was kind of dull. It had been raining most of the week and I had settled into cleaning the house after the evening news – that was until the news alerts started to go across the screen.

There was a “tornado warning” out last night. That means a tornado had been spotted and the local news channel was flashing radar shots, talking high winds, hail and rightfully doing their job warning people about the fast approaching storm moving up from Greeneville.

There’s no way I could convince anyone that I have any skills as a storm-chaser, but I love a thunderstorm and the more lightening the better. Must be the wild way Nature pushes life to the limit and you might say I’m a thrill-seeker.

My father lives in Fall Branch and I called to make sure he was Ok. Our conversation was short because he was afraid lightning would run in on the telephone as the rains started to fail heavy outside his window.

The sky in Colonial Heights had an eerie golden color when I jumped into the Jeep with my Nikon camera and Flip video camera. The wind was picking up too and I could hear the thunder in the distance.

According to the radar images, my best bet to watch this storm was to drive south on I-81 toward Exit 50 near Fall Branch.

Sure enough, as soon as I got the Tri-Cities crossing exit, the rain had slowed the Interstate traffic to a crawl and my windshield wipers could barely keep up with the downpour.

Slowing down, I grabbed the small video camera and held it up to the sky as I paid attention to the road. I was surprised in just a few moments to catch what looked like a funnel cloud forming near the Fordtown/Harmony area.

It was hard to believe at first and the moment of panic gave way to thrill, but after watching the rotation of the clouds and the behavior of this fast moving wall cloud, it was clearly something news-worthy.

Throughout the night, pictures started showing up all across the web showing these strange funnel clouds and that’s just something we don’t witness too often here in East Tennessee.

Nevertheless, here’s my amateur attempt to capture this wild disturbance on Friday night, May 8th at 8.20pm around milemarker 54 on Interstate 81.

My friend Alan Sieg had some good advice after he learned of my first attempt. “1st rule of chasing tornados; stay behind them. Approach them from the West or the South. Don’t get in front and NEVER get under.

Thanks Alan. I’ll keep that in mind, but this was a thrilling Friday night drive and I’m glad noone was hurt.

Kingsport will be a hot ticket for live concerts this summer as downtown sponsors and Fun Fest get ready to turn up the volume with some extraordinary acts.

A few weeks ago, we learned the Grammy-Award winner Peter Frampton will take the stage at Fun Fest on Friday, July 18th. That’s what Pollstar is reporting and lots of folks are excited about the show. Evidently, REO Speedwagon was the original choice, but Frampton was the winning act according to an event organizer.

Last week, Pollstar also announced Southern Rock legends, The Marshall Tucker Band will appear at Fun Fest along Luke Bryan and the country duo Joey and Rory.

There’s finally some buzz about Downtown Kingsport’s Thursday night concert series sponsored by several area sponsors.

The season kicks off Saturday May 16th with Racks by The Tracks, a popular annual barbecue and brew event on the lawn of Kingsport’s train station. This daytime event always attracts a good crowd and this year, legendary bluesman Pinetop Perkins will be the inaugural concert.

After that, several concert websites are citing the following acts will be appearing as part of the popular weekly concerts on Broad Street continues now into its third year. Those acts may include;

May 28 – Jim Lauderdale
June 4 – Betty LaVette – great lady of Soul
June 11- Jypsi – The future of country
June 25 – Chatham County Line – Bluegrass/Alt Country
July 23 – The Belleville Outfit – Alt/Country
July 30 – The Legendary JCs – Blues/Funk/Soul
August 27 – The Bottle Rockets – Rock/Americana

These dates are confirmed by several ticketing websites including Pollstar, but are certainly subject up to change as sometimes contracts are not signed yet or last minute changes vary the schedule.

In addition to Fun Fest and the Downtown Concert Series, Doug Beatty and the developers working with the Bonefire Restaurant are talking up several live concerts at “The Bus Pit.”

Located next to the Bonefire, “The Bus Pit” (the sign still calls it “The Garage”) was supposed to open in mid-April with the Infamous StringDusters, but that was cancelled as construction has barely commenced on the new stage.

Several weeks ago, I toured the new venue and it looks like a promising opportunity for Kingsport. The former repair garage has a pit where mechanics worked underneath city school buses. Beatty hopes to house a full size bus in the middle of the restaurant to serve as a bar and entertain crowds up to 300 and appeal to the barbecue, beer and blues crowd.

Some of the artist websites reporting shows at the Bus Stop including visits by Greensky Bluegrass (5/6), James Intveid (5/8) and Webb Wilder’s website promotes a date on Wednesday May 20th.

Kingsport’s not the only place for live music this summer though…

Johnson City will host another Blue Plumb Festival this year with Acoustic Syndicate , Scott Miller , Malcomb Holcombe , Goose Creek Symphony and several local artists on three stages on Friday and Saturday, June 5th and 6th.

Gate City will once again host the annual Clinchfest featuring many traditional mountain musicians on Saturday and Sunday, June 12th and 13th and feature the up-and-coming local boy Brinley Addington, Fire In The Kitchen and many others.

Looking back over this schedule, there’s no doubt the hills will be alive with the sound of music this summer and we should have some great memories to look forward to.

If Downtown delivers on all the concerts they’ve been cooking up over the past several months, Kingsport will be the most talked about destination for terrific live shows in East Tennessee. Should be fun – See ya on the streets!

Breaking into the music business is not an easy career path. It takes a lot of work, a lot of patience, luck and having a overwhelming gift never hurts.

Last week, 18-year Chelsea Constable, a Kingsport native was seen smiling on the popular game show, “The Price Is Right” – demoing a guitar from Line 6.

National exposure like this is a rare opportunity for a young musician, but Chelsea’s got the chops and a wicked talent that blends the blues and virtuosity into a recipe that may very well position her among rock and roll goddesses.

There’s always a tendency for reviews like this to gush – especially when a hometown girl is in the spotlight, but Chelsea is a shooting star and cult-legend here in the Tri-Cities. Because of her age, she’s only appeared at a handful of shows (she started gaining attention in her early teens), but for those who have seen and heard her gift, the awe is mythical.

Her Myspace website features snapshots of Chelsea with some of the greatest names in the business including Eric Johnson, Allan Holdsworth, Billy Gibbons, Slash, Les Paul, Eddie Van Halen and others. She also has drummed up a significant endorsement from Fender and Line 6 guitars too – evidently her entrance into daytime television where she is also pictured with Drew Carey.

It’s rare to see young people achieve this kind of notoriety, but what’s more impressive is the road ahead. Following a Google thread on her name, you’ll see that she’s gearing up for her first debut CD. She certainly had the attention from the natives here in the mountains and it’s just about time for the world to see the extraordinary talent from here in the mountains.

It was the summer of 1976 when I first opened the double-live album ‘Frampton Comes Alive.”

There have been lots of live recordings produced since then, but this record is still the second best-selling live album of all time – right behind Garth Brooks – “Double Live” and Frampton will come alive again this Summer at Fun Fest 2009.

Noone had ever heard of Peter Frampton at the time, but it wouldn’t be long before every radio on the streets of Kingsport and around Duck Island (remember cruising the island?) was tuned into “Baby I Love Your Way.”

It wasn’t long before “Show Me The Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” would follow each other as one of the greatest live rock and roll albums ever saturated our summer soundtrack in the late seventies.

These songs were originally recorded in the studio on ‘Frampton’s Camel,” but it took the live album recorded in a mobile truck on a one-inch tape. The sounds of the crowd roaring to multi-verse solos was intoxicating and whether or not they are real or subliminal , this one all but catapulted Frampton into a legendary rock brand.

Another significant distinction from Peter Frampton – he single-handedly launched the success of the “talk-box” which allowed a guitar player to redirect the sound of his guitar through a tube in his mouth and a microphone. “Do You Feel Like We Do” is still an anthem and I imagine this will be a big hit when Frampton plays Fun Fest on July 17th .

Frampton recently played an HDNET performance and it was long ago that he played the Tennessee Theatre in Knoxville and friends who did get to see the performance were still amazed at the artist and his ability to still deliver the old tunes.

Like many rock and roll Fun Fest artists, he’s lost a lot of hair and is still popular after 30 years and fans should have lots of fun at Kingsport’s summer fun festival.

I had lunch yesterday with Doug Beatty, festival organizer for “Racks By The Tracks” – a music/barbecue and micro-brew festival now in it’s second year in Downtown Kingsport earlier today.

It was thrilling to hear him announce (PollStar confirms) legendary blues piano-man Pinetop Perkins will be performing as the headliner this year for the ultra-cool festival held outdoors on the ground of the old train station.

As the history of blues legends continues to be written, Pinetop Perkins has plenty of space devoted to his influence. The original side man to Muddy Waters, Pinetop is a 2007 Grammy Award winner and is still traveling the country at the age of 95.

This will be a memorable afternoon to remember as Kingsport welcomes a true-blue legend and I can’t wait to say I listened to Pinetop Perkins downtown. Can’t wait to hear, “Got My Mojo Workin’,” “Caldonia,” “Pinetop Boogie” and other blues standards. This will be the excellent way to kick off what will be an incredible year of live music in our East Tennessee home.