Carolina Bluegrass Style, a high-energy bluegrass fusion band, will entertain at a free concert on Friday, October 9, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. at the Karns Community Center, Oak Ridge Highway. Parking is in the back lot of Karns Elementary School.
The final show of the season will be in November. Bring your lawn chair and come on in. Business sponsors make the free concerts possible.
Don Ashley is the fiddle player and master of ceremonies. Tyler Chasteen, youngster in the group, plays rhythm and lead guitar. Tommy Thomas organized the group and plays bass; and David Prosser is the banjo-dobro player.
Band members live near Columbia, South Carolina, they perform regionally and are especially known in Asheville, North Carolina. Listen to them here or on YouTube.
More from Karns
The Karns Waffle House is open, now from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. but soon will be 24/7. Karns has lost a couple of old favorites lately, so folks are excited about the new restaurant. It’s so new the address is not yet on the website.
Karns Community Club will meet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at the Karns Community Building, 7708 Oak Ridge Hwy.
Two event centers are available for rent. Book soon for holiday parties. Info: info@karnscommunityclub.org or visit the Reservations page on the website: karnscommunityclub.org
Lee Handler to offer ASL gallery talks
Lee Handler
Knoxville’s deaf community is invited to a special event on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Ewing Gallery, first floor UT Art + Architecture Building, 1715 Volunteer Blvd. The Ewing Gallery welcomes Knoxville’s Deaf Community to an evening of art in Art, Movement, and Disability at our on-campus location. This event will be led by Lee Handler, UT C ‘24, who works with cultural institutions to improve accessibility to exhibitions and spaces for Knoxville’s Deaf Community. ASL gallery talks led by Lee will take place at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. in the Ewing Gallery.
First Friday is October 2
The Emporium will open at 2 p.m. on Friday, October 2, 2026, with new exhibits for fall. The curator talk and gallery tour begins at 4 p.m. and the opening reception will be from 5-9 p.m. at 100 S. Gay Street. Hosted by the Arts & Culture Alliance.
Rachel Waldrop
Rachel Waldrop has curated Standing in the Shower … Thinking. It’s inspired by Jane’s Addiction’s 1988 studio album, Nothing’s Shocking. Rachel Reese Waldrop is director and curator of the Athenaeum, UGA’s contemporary art space in downtown Athens, Georgia, and director of the Dodd Galleries in the Lamar Dodd School of Art since 2025.
With a range of included works made over the past 10 years, artists Harry Kagan, John Paul Kessling and Victoria Sauer pursue and exploit the site of a shower – and shower thoughts – to differing degrees. Centering the bathroom, and thereby larger ideas of human figuration, connection and representations of intimacy and meditation as universal experiences – their paintings, photographs and ceramics in Standing in the Shower … Thinking approach the subject with both humor and humanity.
The Fountain City Ramblers will provide entertainment from 6-9 p.m. for the reception. Since 2017, The Ramblers have played many memorable shows throughout East Tennessee, including the Tennessee Theatre, WDVX Blue Plate Special, Dogwood Arts Festival and others.
