Review: Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of a Mountaintop Honky-Tonk

Homeplace: A Southern Town, a Country Legend, and the Last Days of a Mountaintop Honky-Tonk by John Lingan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I began reading this book after a brief skimming of the book’s description. I expected a lot of country and roots music history, with some small town-loving prose. I got a lot less of the music I was expecting. I got a lot more of the small town story, but it was a story of change, not all reminiscing. Sure, there’s a lot of reminiscing about the history of Winchester and the area, especially the recent history, the Patsy Cline years. And there’s a lot about what has changed as the townspeople have changed, with the old residents dying off and new outsiders, almost always from bigger cities, moving in. Those outsiders often have different ideas, and the clash of old and new is what the book is really about.

The section that really explained the situation was about a water tasting competition held in town. This event has become the area’s draw, or what it is known for, usurping “the birthplace of Patsy Cline," or the home to a very traditional mountain honky tonk. The idea for the event was by outsiders, and the event is mostly run by outsiders. I liked the way the author illustrated the perspectives of the outsiders as well as some of the older, traditional residents in their thoughts on the water tasting event. You can sense that growth and progress will overtake history and tradition. The same kind of thing happened in my small hometown. An outsider mayor gifted the town a 30 feet tall plastic statue of a man on an old high-wheel bicycle, and had it placed on city property in the center of town. There’s no historic reason to showcase a bike there, but it is along a bike trail. There was lots of grousing by the long-time residents initially, but that has mostly died down, and the statue is becoming what the town is known for. (Previously the town was best known for writing a prodigious number of speeding tickets, so maybe this is an actual upgrade.) This book covered topics that seemed all too familiar.


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