Presse Archiv - Various Artists Tell It To Me - Johnson City recording sessions earns Pinnacle Award
JOHNSON CITY (July 10, 2020) – “Tell It to Me: The Johnson City Sessions 90th Anniversary Celebration,” a two-day event held in Johnson City, on October 18-19, 2019, was named “Festival or Event of the Year” during the recent Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association’s Pinnacle Awards.
decorative image for Reaching a Pinnacle
Reaching a Pinnacle

"Tell It to Me: The Johnson City Sessions 90th Anniversary Celebration," held in October 2019, received the Pinnacle Award for "Festival or Event of the Year," which is the most competitive category in this annual competition sponsored by the Northeast Tennessee Tourism Association.

“Tell It to Me” celebrated the influential Johnson City Sessions, which were commercial recording sessions of Appalachian regional music conducted in downtown Johnson City in October 1928 and October 1929. Those recordings, released by Columbia Records at the dawn of the Great Depression, have inspired several generations of musicians in such genres as country, bluegrass, folk, rock and Americana. Until recently, though, there has been little public awareness that the recordings originated in Johnson City. The 2019 event was intended to generate broader awareness about the significance of those recordings locally and regionally as well as nationally and internationally.
The Pinnacle Awards program pays tribute to Northeast Tennessee’s peak performers in the tourism industry. According to NETTA’s website, nominations are reviewed by a panel of unbiased judges, and exemplary projects and individuals are selected as Pinnacle Award winners. NETTA Director Alicia Phelps said that the decision to award “Tell It to Me” the top Festival/Event honor “was a unanimous decision in what is always our most competitive category.”