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Although the culture of Kentucky is considered to be firmly Southern, it is also influenced by Southern Appalachia, blending with the native upper Southern culture in certain areas of the state. The state is known for bourbon and whiskey distilling, tobacco, horse racing, and college basketball.
Kentucky is more similar to the Upper South in terms of ancestry which is predominantly American (meaning that only this ancestry was specified by respondents to the US Census). [1] Nevertheless, during the 19th century, Kentucky did receive a substantial number of German immigrants, who settled mostly in the Midwest and parts of the Upper South, along the Ohio river primarily in Louisville, Maysville, Covington, and Newport. [2] Only Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia have higher German ancestry percentages than Kentucky among Census-defined Southern states, although Kentucky's percentage is relatively smaller than the previously named states' percentages. [3]
Kentucky was a slave state, and black people once comprised over one-quarter of its population. However, it lacked the cotton plantation system though it did support significant and large scale tobacco plantation systems in the western and central parts of the state more similar to the plantations developed in Virginia and North Carolina than those in the Deep South, 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 has a relatively significant rural African American population in the Central and Western areas of the state. [4] [5] [6] Kentucky adopted the Jim Crow system of racial segregation in most public spheres after the Civil War, but the state never disenfranchised African American citizens to the level of the Deep South 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. [7]
Kentucky celebrates Confederate Memorial Day as a state holiday on June 3, on the anniversary of Jefferson Davis's birthday. The biggest day in horse racing, the Kentucky Derby, is preceded by the two-week Kentucky Derby Festival [8] in Louisville. Louisville also plays host to the Kentucky State Fair [9] and the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. [10] Owensboro, Kentucky's fourth largest city, gives credence to its nickname of "Barbecue Capital of the World" by hosting the annual International Bar-B-Q Festival. [11] Bowling Green, Kentucky's third largest city and home to the only assembly plant in the world that manufactures the Chevrolet Corvette, [12] opened the National Corvette Museum in 1994. [13]
Old Louisville, the largest historic preservation district in the United States featuring Victorian architecture and the third largest overall, [14] hosts the St. James Court Art Show, the largest outdoor art show in the United States. [15] The neighborhood was also home to the Southern Exposition (1883–1887), which featured the first public display of Thomas Edison's light bulb, [16] and was the setting of Alice Hegan Rice's novel, Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch and Fontaine Fox's comic strip, the "Toonerville Trolley. [17]
The more rural communities are not without traditions of their own, however. Fairview was the birthplace of Jefferson Davis who would become President of the Confederate States of America and had the Jefferson Davis Memorial a 351 foot concrete obelisk built in 1917. Hodgenville, the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, hosts the annual Lincoln Days Celebration, and will also host the kick-off for the National Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration in February 2008. Bardstown celebrates its heritage as a major bourbon-producing region with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. [18] (Legend holds that Baptist minister Elijah Craig invented bourbon with his black slave in Georgetown, but some dispute this claim.) [19] Glasgow mimics Glasgow, Scotland by hosting the Glasgow Highland Games, its own version of the Highland Games, [20] and Sturgis hosts "Little Sturgis", a mini version of Sturgis, South Dakota's annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. [21] The residents of tiny Benton even pay tribute to their favorite tuber, the sweet potato, by hosting Tater Day. [22] Residents of Clarkson in Grayson County celebrate their city's ties to the honey industry by celebrating the Clarkson Honeyfest. [23] The Clarkson Honeyfest is held the last Thursday, Friday and Saturday in September, and is the "Official State Honey Festival of Kentucky."
Renfro Valley, Kentucky, 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, Homer & Jethro, Lily May Ledford & the Original Coon Creek Girls, Martha Carson, and many others have performed as regular members of the shows there over the years. The Renfro Valley Gatherin' is today America's second oldest continually broadcast radio program of any kind. It is broadcast on local radio station WRVK and a syndicated network of nearly 200 other stations across the United States and Canada every week.
Contemporary Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman is a Paducah native, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Everly Brothers are closely connected with Muhlenberg County, where older brother Don was born. Kentucky was also home to Mildred and Patty Hill, the Louisville sisters credited with composing the tune to the ditty Happy Birthday to You in 1893; Loretta Lynn (Johnson County), and Billy Ray Cyrus (Flatwoods). However, its depth lies in its signature sound — Bluegrass music. Bill Monroe, "The Father of Bluegrass", was born in the small Ohio County town of Rosine, while Ricky Skaggs, Keith Whitley, David "Stringbean" Akeman, Louis Marshall "Grandpa" Jones, Sonny and Bobby Osborne, and Sam Bush (who has been compared to Monroe) all hail from Kentucky. The International Bluegrass Music Museum is located in Owensboro, [24] while the annual Festival of the Bluegrass is held in Lexington. [25]
Kentucky is also home to famed jazz musician and pioneer Lionel Hampton (although this has been disputed in recent years). [26] Blues legend W.C. Handy and R&B singer Wilson Pickett also spent considerable time in Kentucky. The pop bands Midnight Star and Nappy Roots were both formed in Kentucky, as were country acts The Kentucky Headhunters, Montgomery Gentry and Halfway to Hazard, as well as Dove Award-winning Christian groups Audio Adrenaline (rock) and Bride (metal).
Kentucky's cuisine is generally similar to and is a part of traditional southern cooking, although in some areas of the state it can blend elements of both the South and Appalachia. [27] [28] One original Kentucky dish is called the Hot Brown, a dish normally layered in this order: toast, turkey, bacon, tomatoes and topped with mornay sauce. It was developed at the Brown Hotel in Louisville. [29] The Pendennis Club in Louisville claims to be the birthplace of the Old Fashioned cocktail. Also, western Kentucky is known for its own regional style of barbecue.
Kentucky, for a variety of reasons, has been a frequent hunting ground for vintage spirits collectors. [30] There are multiple distilleries in the state, and a large number of bourbon distilleries; bourbon in particular is considered highly collectible. [30] Vintage spirits are legal for sale under Kentucky's 2018 Vintage Spirits law, [31] [32] known as House Bill 100; [33] in almost all other US states such sales are illegal. [32]
Kentucky is also fertile ground for collectors because while distillers historically included bourbon in employee compensation packages, Kentucky is part of the Bible Belt, an area of the United States where many disapprove of drinking alcohol. [32] In Kentucky it is not uncommon to find unopened cases dating back decades stored in attics or basements. [32] [30]
Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. Kentucky borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the northeast, Virginia to the east, Tennessee to the south, and Missouri to the west. Its northern border is defined by the Ohio River. Its capital is Frankfort and its largest city is Louisville. Its population was approximately 4.5 million in 2020.
Bourbon is a type of barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn (maize). The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although the precise source of inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, both of which are named after the dynasty. The name bourbon was not applied until the 1850s, and the Kentucky etymology was not advanced until the 1870s.
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States, and it is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the 2nd most populous city in Kentucky after Louisville and 60th-most populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest city. The city is also known as "Horse Capital of the World". It is within the state's Bluegrass region. Notable locations within the city include the Kentucky Horse Park, The Red Mile and Keeneland race courses, Rupp Arena, Central Bank Center, Transylvania University, the University of Kentucky, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) Headquarters.
Frankfort is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kentucky and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city. The population was 28,602 at the 2020 United States census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the principal city of the Frankfort, Kentucky Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Franklin and Anderson counties. It is the fourth smallest state capital city in the United States by population.
Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
Danville is a home rule-class city in Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 17,236 at the 2020 Census. Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of the Boyle and Lincoln counties. In 2001, Danville received a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2011, Money magazine placed Danville as the fourth-best place to retire in the United States. Centre College in Danville was selected to host U.S. vice-presidential debates in 2000 and 2012.
Clarkson is a home rule-class city in Grayson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 933 at the 2020 census, up from 875 at the 2010 census, Once called "Grayson Springs Depot" after a nearby resort, the name was changed in 1882 to honor the resort's owner, Manoah Clarkson.
Bardstown is a home rule-class city in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 13,567 in the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Nelson County.
The Music of Kentucky is heavily centered on Appalachian folk music and its descendants, especially in eastern Kentucky. Bluegrass music is of particular regional importance; Bill Monroe, "the father of bluegrass music", was born in the Ohio County community of Rosine, and he named his band, the Blue Grass Boys, after the bluegrass state, i.e., Kentucky. Travis picking, the influential guitar style, is named after Merle Travis, born and raised in Muhlenberg County. Kentucky is home to the Country Music Highway, which extends from Portsmouth, Ohio, to the Virginia border in Pike County.
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private, American family-owned and operated distillery founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky, that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a variety of other distilled spirits. Its current distillery facility, called the Heaven Hill Bernheim distillery, is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the seventh-largest alcohol supplier in the United States, the second-largest holder of bourbon whiskey inventory in the world, the largest, independent, family-owned and operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the United States, and the only large family-owned distillery company headquartered in Kentucky.
The cuisine of Kentucky mostly resembles that and is a part of traditional Southern cuisine. Some common dinner dishes are fried catfish and hushpuppies, fried chicken and country fried steak. These are usually served with vegetables such as green beans, greens, pinto beans slow-cooked with pork as seasoning and served with cornbread. Other popular items include fried green tomatoes, cheese grits, corn pudding, fried okra, and chicken and dumplings, which can be found across the commonwealth.
The Kentucky Exposition Center (KEC), is a large multi-use facility in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. Originally built in 1956. It is overseen by the Kentucky Venues and is the sixth largest facility of its type in the U.S., with 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m2) of indoor space. KEC has two arenas, almost 700,000 sq. ft of Class A exhibit space, nearly 500 acres of outdoor planning space. A majority of the 1.3 million square feet is contiguous.
The Kentucky Bourbon Trail is a program sponsored by the Kentucky Distillers' Association (KDA) to promote the Bourbon whiskey industry in Kentucky. The KDA has registered the phrase "Kentucky Bourbon Trail" as a protected trademark.
As of the 2010 census, the United States Commonwealth of Kentucky had an estimated population of 4,339,367, which is an increase of 297,174, or 7.4%, since the year 2000. Approximately 4.4% of Kentucky's population was foreign-born as of 2010. The population density of the state is 107.4 people per square mile.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the United States Commonwealth of Kentucky:
The Forecastle Festival is a three-day music, art, activism festival held annually in Louisville, Kentucky. The festival was founded in 2002 as a small gathering of local musicians in Tyler Park, and steadily grew into a national attraction that now includes major touring acts and an economic impact of over $20 million per year. Forecastle was selected as one of Rolling Stone's "Coolest Festivals" and has an annual attendance of over 75,000 fans at Louisville Waterfront Park. It attracts attendees from nearly all 50 states, 2000 cities, and a dozen international countries. Past headliners include The Black Keys, Jack White, Jack Harlow, Beck, Outkast, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Tame Impala, Tyler the Creator, Sam Smith, My Morning Jacket, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Alabama Shakes, The Flaming Lips, The Avett Brothers, Widespread Panic, Cage the Elephant and many more
Lexington Brewing and Distilling Company is a brewery and distillery based in Lexington, Kentucky founded in 1999 by Pearse Lyons, the president and founder of animal nutrition company Alltech.
Vintage spirits, also known as dusties, are old, discontinued, or otherwise rare bottles of liquor. The collectibility of a bottle is based on rarity, with age as a secondary factor. The name "dusty" refers to the fact that many such now-collectible bottles had been sitting on a liquor store shelf or unopened in a home or restaurant bar for years collecting dust.
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