Episode 3933

- [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Narrator] Some of our biggest checks have also made the biggest difference. The Tennessee Lottery. Proud to have raised more than 7.5 billion dollars for education. Now that's some game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways, where adventure, cuisine and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tnvacation.com.

- [Narrator] Middle Tennessee State University College of Liberal Arts helps students explore the world, engage minds, enrich lives and earn a living. More at mtsu.edu/cla.

- This time on "Tennessee Crossroads," we'll meet an East Nashville hat-maker, head to Pulaski for some good classic Southern food, explore the works of a local mural artist and visit the first state park in Tennessee, it's gonna be a scenic show. Howdy, everyone, I'm Ketch Secor welcoming you again to "Tennessee Crossroads." It's no secret that I love a good hat and I bet some of you feel that same way, whether it's keeping the sun off your head or just adding that little something extra to your look, the right hat can be a necessity, and in our first story, I found a shop in East Nashville where you can get a one-of-a-kind chapeau.

- [Narrator] When Ashley Botts Willis makes a hat... She truly starts at square one.

- [Ashley] This is where you wanna get, like, the strong crease break from the crown to the brim. I actually take the hat body, which is basically what we call our piece of fabric or felt, and I start from the very beginning of completely blocking it, I hand-shape all of my hats, so they're all completely different, and I make it to the exact shape and the size of the person's head.

- [Narrator] Ashley's hat-making journey started almost a decade ago. Her career in corporate fashion wasn't as fulfilling as she'd hoped, and on a whim, she decided to take a millinery class at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology.

- I absolutely fell in love with it, I had an amazing teacher, she was very inspirational for me, so it was kind of, like, that aha moment of, like, "Okay, this is what I'm supposed to do, this is where I'm supposed to go," and I just finished the whole course and was like, "All right, I'm doing this."

- [Narrator] Little did she know the craft was in her genes all the way back to her upbringing in a small North Carolina town.

- That was huge in kind of the whole music scene, and bluegrass and country music, and I grew up around that culture. I actually found out later that my grandmother used to make her own hats, which I found some when I was cleaning out her attic once she had passed away, and this was after I'd already started my millinery journey, and it was so crazy because I started reading the tabs and I'm like, "'Handcrafted by Ola Willis,'" And I'm like, "Dad, what's going on here?" And he's like, "Oh, yeah, Grandma used to make some of her own hats," and I'm like, "What?" I was like, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

- [Narrator] So with a new career calling, Ashley packed up her life in New York City and relocated to Nashville, eventually opening her East Nashville outpost called A. Botts Willis.

- [Ashley] I absolutely love East Nashville because of the community, like, first and foremost, I think that out of everywhere that I've lived, this has been the most supportive of small businesses, of local businesses, of mom-and-pops, which I find just so amazing because I think in a world of, like, fast fashion and, you know, folks buying from Amazon and, like, all the other things, it's really nice to be immersed in a community that still really cares about, like, handmade crafts and custom-made things.

- [Narrator] And when Ashley says custom, she really means it. Every customer's head is measured using a tool called a conformateur.

- What we do is we get the front of your head. You always measure about a half-inch above the eyebrows, and then... It's, like, a major contraption, right? And then, we go and we tighten it so that we get his exact shape...

- Just kidding.

- And size, so then, after we have that, you know, you wanna make sure it's snug, we take that and I sketch it out.

- [Narrator] From that sketch, a block is made so that each customer's size and shape is recorded and their custom-made hat can begin its journey.

- I start with blocking the felt on the crown block that is the general size for that person's head, once I do that, I wet-block and I also steam-block, and then, that has to dry, and then, the next day, I come back and I pounce it and sand it, which is just taking off that, like, outer layer of fur, and then, we burn the remainder of the fur off of it just so it has a very clean... Finish, and then, I cut the sweatband to the size and the shape of the person's head, and then, I actually hand-sew it in, and then, I hand-shape the crown, and then, I hand-shape the brim, and then, I trim it out to whatever the person's wanting, like, the hat bands that they want, the pins that they want, if they're wanting any stitch work, or bead work, or anything else, and I add it at the end, and then, I put the lining in, put her in a box, name her and she's ready to go.

- [Narrator] Ready to go wherever the customer's path takes them, whether that's to a party, a stage or just around the corner for coffee, they'll definitely make a statement, and if the handmade size, shape and design weren't enough to set it apart, Ashley has a vast collection of decorations to make each hat truly unique.

- [Ashley] I sell a lot of specifically Victorian trims, like Victorian mourning pins, I also carry a lot of the enamel pins that are kinda, like, turn-of-the-century, early 1900s, which I really love.

- [Narrator] A one-of-a-kind work of art that Ashley says should make the wearer feel like a one-of-a-kind, as well.

- [Ashley] I love it, it just never felt like you could express yourself as much as you could express yourself with a hat, I just feel like it kinda sets you apart from everyone else, and it really kinda tells your personality and shows your personality, and really, just kinda makes you stand out in your own respect.

- [People] Cheers!

- Cheers, y'all.

- Well, I can't wait to stop in at A. Botts Willis, what a great spot, well, next, we head to Pulaski to discover how a couple can run a ranch and a restaurant simultaneously, especially when neither had any restaurant experience, but their persistence and passion for cooking has paid off at a place called the Hickory House.

- The Giles County Courthouse has got to be one of the most attractive we've seen around the state, but we didn't come to Pulaski to study history, we came to visit another landmark famous for barbecue and fine home cooking. The Hickory House has been a local mainstay since the 1960s, first owned by the late Butch White, then in 2013, JP and Jackie Perry took over the reigns. At the time, JP was busy managing the couple's Deer Valley Farm, now home to about 2,000 Black Angus cattle. Jackie was happily working as a full-time paralegal and a little reluctant to change careers.

- The restaurant was my idea, my passion, she was a paralegal for 30 years, she told me when I came up with the idea that I would do it with my next wife, not with her, that absolutely was she not gonna quit her career as a paralegal and run a restaurant every day, and a year or two went by and the opportunity came about to buy this building, and it was her idea and, you know, we got in the restaurant business. We were a little naive, had never owned a restaurant, never worked in a restaurant, but thought, "How hard can it be? You know, we cook for people at home all the time, we cook for crowds and entertain a lot, oh, it can't be that hard," let me tell you, it was baptism by fire. It was quite a learning curve.

- [Joe] Well, the Perrys quickly navigated that curve and now preside over a popular gathering spot for fine Southern cooking and one of JP's specialties, barbecue.

- [JP] Well, my passion for meat and smoking meat has... Is something that I've had all my life and, you know, we love to smoke certified Angus beef briskets, we love to smoke ribs, chickens, pork sausage, beef sausage, you name it, and we kinda built the entire premise around great barbecue and we wanted to put great steaks on our menus.

- [Joe] Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a source of those steaks just down the road at the ranch... And while steaks are a big hit with weekend diners, Hickory House is also a lunchtime destination. You can order from their extensive regular menu or choose one of the daily meat-and-three specials.

- [JP] The things that your mother or your grandmother would cook for you on Sunday dinner, we do every day, all our sides, all our vegetables are homemade, in-house, made from scratch, whether it's mashed potatoes, whether it's green beans, collard greens, dressing, you know, we've got a crew in the back that love to cook.

- Have a great team, we all work together, it's fun, I think I had this vision of what the restaurant life would be like, but it's... I enjoy it, it's fun, we make it fun.

- [Joe] Some employees have been on board since day one, well, like veteran cook Sharon Kemp.

- We're like a family here. Yep, and I'm not just, you know, saying that just because they my boss, but we're like a family here, and JP and Jackie, you can't ask for two better people.

- [Joe] And you can't ask for a better dessert than one of Sharon's creations like blueberry cobbler. When I talked to JP, he referred to you as the boss.

- Well, I'm here every day. I come in every day, get the... Get it... Keep it going, keep it rolling.

- The Southern Pride smoker is probably one of the best investments we made when we opened this building, we didn't think we'd ever utilize one this big and we actually had our third one delivered yesterday, so we just keep growing. You know, I think barbecue is very easy if you look at it in this respect, always start with a high-quality piece of meat and don't mess it up, you know?

- [Joe] And while the main mission is always turning out consistently delicious dishes, it helps that the owners also love to interact with their customers.

- [JP] Jackie and I are both very social. We really love people, we love entertaining, we love being around people, we have a very, very good relationship with our customer base and are blessed with the people that come through the door.

- [Joe] No doubt Jackie and JP have been blessed with the success of Hickory House, a fantasy of sorts that turned into a full-time reality, and now, years after making that leap of faith, their warm passion for cooking and pleasing guests has never cooled off.

- You wish you could go back to day one and say, "I wish I'd have known a few more things and maybe done some things differently," but, you know, we've been so blessed to come to those hurdles, make it through those hurdles, and go forward and still be viable as a business, so we're still married after 10 years, we're still in business after 10 years, so I'd say that's pretty good success, and we're happily married.

- Thanks, Joe. Well, if you take a walk or a drive through the streets of Nashville, you're very likely to see some of the murals that seem to be popping up everywhere. In our next story, Miranda Cohen introduces us to a young muralist who is hard at work decorating Music City with her colorful creations.

- I think I've always loved painting and drawing my entire life, it was definitely, you know, my favorite activity in school, and in high school I started kind of getting serious about it.

- [Miranda] Tess Davies is tucked away in her Nashville loft, carefully blending colors and painting images on a canvas that only a true artist can imagine. A Nashville native and a graduate of Sewanee: The University of the South, she appears to be blending fragile, exotic colors in her refined style of art, but in truth, she's using something much more common and accessible.

- I guess I'm so used to using house paint now, and exterior paint, and spray paint that I've incorporated that into my studio work as well, so it's kind of... It all sort of melds together now.

- [Miranda] In one of her many studio styles, Davies will use everyday exterior paint to carefully paint delicate details of interior rooms, which conjure up memories of her childhood.

- I was the Barbie generation, so I had to make everything pink, because that's the color I think of when I think of my childhood, so yeah, that series is just... It's about home, and comfort, and confinement, and a little bit also about isolation and loneliness because they're all empty rooms, so I think thematically, they kind of tie into everything else that I'm doing.

- [Miranda] Expecting her first child with husband Barton Davies, also a local Nashvillian, and a member of the band Boy Named Banjo. It was her love of people and feeling of isolation during the pandemic that caused her to start thinking of both her art and her impact on her community on a much larger scale.

- [Tess] So those pieces kind of came as a result of COVID, we complained about Nashville's growth a little bit, and crowds, and traffic, and everything else, and then, you started to miss those things, so those pieces specifically speak to that and, you know, not taking for granted, you know, closeness and togetherness.

- [Miranda] The faceless people coming together to share and to be close, the blending of color and texture fluidly interacting to reflect the feel of community that we all so desperately missed. That is when Davies began to think bigger, on a larger scale and to make broader strokes, both on her canvas and on her beloved hometown, so she began painting murals.

- I did a lot of interior walls with hotels and restaurants around town, and a few exterior walls with Metro, and I've done some apartment buildings, so it's just kind of all over the map. I think the biggest one I've done is seven stories, and when I was working on it, you know, you're right up against the wall so you don't really appreciate the scale, but now, looking back, I'm like, "Wow, that was a big wall," so it's cool, I like being able to see it and pass by it. It's fun to see the expansion that's happening with our city and developers that are coming in from other cities, they do want to make spaces that feel like Nashville. It's been exciting, I definitely have loved being able to put my mark on it as it's grown.

- [Miranda] From her smaller in-studio works to her pieces soaring over the skyline of Music City, Davies likes to color outside of the lines and hopes her art will mimic the ever-evolving landscape of Nashville.

- [Tess] But I never wanna settle on one style, I like to just continue to challenge myself, and switch it up, and change my style, and change the subject matter so that I'm never too comfortable in what I'm doing.

- Thanks, Miranda, people like her are really making Nashville a more colorful place to live. Well, for our last segment this time, we turn once again to our renowned photographer friend John Guider and his series on our beautiful Tennessee state parks. This time, he takes us to Tennessee's very first official state park, Reelfoot Lake.

- We're fortunate that Reelfoot is one of the most unique, naturally beautiful places in all of Tennessee, and really, in all the United States. My name is Doug Robertson, I'm the park manager here at Reelfoot Lake State Park. We are the only naturally-occurring lake in all of the state of Tennessee. Reelfoot Lake's history began way back in the early 1800s, 1811 to 1812, over those winter months, this area was hit with a severe series of earthquakes, some severe enough that it's said that it caused the Mississippi River to temporarily reverse course and flow against itself. The area where the lake is now once was a cypress forest that became a depressed area, and conversely, just west of here became the Tiptonville dome where the ground rose up some, so we have undulations, lowering of the ground on one side, raising of the other, and then, of course, the backfield of the lake. At Tennessee state parks, we have a big responsibility to preserve, protect and share our natural resources with our visitors from the state of Tennessee, and really, from all around the world. You'll see egrets, great blue herons, you're gonna see, of course, our resident bald eagles, if you choose to fish, you can go after the largemouth bass, the catfish, the bluegill and the crappie, all of which bring people from all over to come and that choose to fish with us, and we have some of the best waterfowl hunting that you can find, there's local guides here that can get you out on the lake and you're guaranteed to eat a good breakfast, for sure, you'll eat very well in the blinds, but you'll also get in on some really good action if you're into waterfowl hunting, Reelfoot boasts some of the best around, we hope you'll come and check that out also. Really, there's something to do here year-round, we have hiking all of January and February, we offer at least one daily eagle tour where we take guests out and put 'em in one of our vans with an interpretive ranger, and they go out, and witness the American bald eagle that comes here in large numbers over the winter months to nest, and the average eagle tour that goes out can see anywhere from, on average, about 40 or so eagles, up towards 60 or more during one two-hour trip. We go into March and April, where we have our deep swamp kayak/canoe trips that get guests into some of the most remote areas of the swamp, of Reelfoot Lake, places that the average visitor will never see. Around May through October, we offer our pontoon cruises, which will take people out a totally different perspective on the water than it is on the lake... On the lake shore, I should say, you'll go out, we'll take a two-hour tour that goes around the edge of the lake, across the lake to some of the more remote areas and come back in, and sometimes, we even do sunset tours that whenever they come out of the other side of Donaldson Ditch on the north side of the lake, you come out to some of the most fantastic sunsets that you'll ever see, perfect for those that like to photograph those type of events. We have a brand-new, recently completely-renovated south campground that has 86 RV sites, plus primitive camping, we're proud to offer seven premium cabins that are lakefront. I'm proud of this area, I take a real personal pride in this place because this is home to me, Reelfoot Lake and Lake County, Tennessee, no matter how far I may roam or where I might go, this is home to me and I couldn't be more proud to be a part of Reelfoot Lake State Park. I was born and raised here in Lake County, Tennessee, everywhere I look on this park, I have a fond memory, we take great pride in providing a good service and also sharing this tremendous resource that we're lucky that God gifted to us here, and we're looking forward to you coming and I hope you'll come, and I believe if you do, you'll come back again.

- That's a beautiful area and looks like some good fishing too. Well, folks, that's all the time we have for this week, but you can always check out our website at tennesseecrossroads.org and watch us on the PBS app. Thanks for joining us, we'll see you again next time.

- [Narrator] "Tennessee Crossroads" is brought to you in part by...

- [Narrator] Students across Tennessee have benefited from over seven-and-a-half billion dollars we've raised for education, providing more than two million scholarships and grants. The Tennessee Lottery. Game-changing, life-changing fun.

- [Narrator] Discover Tennessee Trails & Byways, where adventure, cuisine and history come together. With 16 scenic driving trails, you can discover why Tennessee sounds perfect. Trips can be planned at tnvacation.com.