Hey Ya'll
Welcome To Ciderville Music Shop..... Sit Down.... Pic One.......
:- Ciderville Music Shop is a step back to a better day, not only a music shop but a place many of the greatist names in bluegrass and county music stars have called home including the legendary radio host Cass Walker. Cidervile is a musical instrument store in Powell Tennesee just outside or what we call a "stones toss" outside of Knoxville, opened in 1958. We specialize in acoustic and folk instruments: guitars, banjos, mandolins, dulcimers (both hammered and plucked), fiddles, jews harps... you get the idea. Ffor the City Folk we also carry electrics and amps. All significant brands usually in stock. We sell, fix and teach, and have all the stuff that anyone would need to go with, including of books and recordings. It's a nice, comfortable place to visit and try things out. Come by if you're in the area -- browsers and itinerant musicians welcome.
Ciderville Feature
Love him or hate him, you couldn't ignore Cas Walker
By Katie Allison Granju and Bill Williams.
We take a look at perhaps the most colorful Knoxville character of the 20th Century: the infamous Cas Walker. The working men and women loved him. Knoxville's so-called elite, whom he dubbed "the silk stocking crowd" found him an embarrassment. But whatever you thought of him, you couldn't ignore him. Cas Walker was a force in Knoxville politics and pop culture for a full four decades.
Born in Sevier County in 1903, Caswell Orton Walker came to Knoxville in 1924 after a stint in Kentucky as a coal miner. Walker opened a single, small grocery store, but as a master salesman with headline-grabbing promotions, he grew his business into a chain of stores.
Cas Walker was first elected to Knoxville's City Council in 1941, and his voice would be a part of local politics for the next 40 years. He served as councilman, vice-mayor and mayor, based on strong support from low-income and minority voters, who saw him as one of their own.
Perhaps his most famous political moment came during the 1950s, when Walker got into a fistfight with another councilman during a city council meeting. A photo of the fracas landed on the cover of Life magazine. In addition to his long career as a businessman and politician, Cas Walker is perhaps best known to a generation of East Tennesseans as an entertainer. He appeared on WBIR's airwaves for many years as host of his own variety show. His down-home style and eccentric delivery made his "Farm and Home Hour" must-see TV for viewers, who wondered what he might do or say next. Walker's show is also well-known as the launching pad for some well-known entertainers, including Jim Nabors and Dolly Parton. But Walker openly disapproved of rock and roll music, once famously booting a pop band off his set during his show. Even in his nineties, facing declining health and living in a nursing home, Cas Walker never stopped expressing his opinions. He died in 1998 at the age of 96. Today he has achieved iconic, almost mythic status in East Tennessee.