The pictures were taken at Joe Hart Road, Shelbyville, Bedford
Co., Tennessee. The property was the original Tennessee homeplace of William R.
Burditt, Sr., who came to Tennessee from South Carolina in the early 1800's,
having purchased the land from the original owner who got the land as a patent.
Wm. R. Sr. sold part of the property, including the spot where Joe Hart's house is,
to Wm. R. Jr. There is a family burial plot up on the hill behind the house where
the cows are now grazing. When the Burditt and Ivy families moved to Missouri, Kentucky,
and Texas, the land was sold to other people, Joe Hart being one of the subsequent
purchasers.
On the right - taken looking to the right of the Joe Hart house. The man on the left is Billy Neel (current owner), the one on the right is the husband of Lynn Blau.
Charlie Patton remembers the old barn being there in the 1950's. This is where his Uncle Joe stabled some of his horses that he let Charlie ride. Uncle Joe was a well respected Tennessee Walking Horse Judge and for those of you who might not know this - Shelbyville has got to be the "Tennessee Walking Horse Capital". I was just awed last year (2004) when I drove past one horse farm after the other. The area is famous for their horses.
Photo on the right - taken standing in front of Joe Hart's house and looking across the road at the land that Wm. R. Burditt cleared to farm. This is where Uncle Joe Hart would let Charlie Patton ride his horses when he was a young boy.
If you go out of Shelbyville toward Morris Hollow, you will come to a road with the sign Joe Hart Road. Turn left on the road and follow it around a "dog leg" and keep going. These two pictures are what the road looked like about five years ago (1999 or so). Nothing much changes in Tennessee back country. It's beautiful!
Most of the descriptions are from Lynn with a smattering of my own - and some observations from Charlie Patton. I had a real debate with myself whether to use the "Tennessee Waltz" music or "Country Roads" which is very fitting for all this. But Country Roads was written about West Virginia so the Tennessee Waltz won my argument.