Clarence "Tom" Ashley: Our Original Mountian Minstrel

Artist: Cristy Dunn
Installation: 2013

Location: 126 S Church St, Mountain City, TN 37683. On the South West side facing Donnelly St.

Clarence "Tom" Ashley was a professional musician and folk singer who is responsible for the preservation and popularization of large amounts of traditional songs and folk music. He learned many of these folk songs from relatives or clients at his grandfather’s boarding house. He got his start playing music at traveling medicine shows, some of which were performed at the very location that now features his mural.

Ashley was the first to record the legendary House of the Rising Sun. He called his original clawhammer turning style “Sawmill Key” or “Lassy Makin’ key”.