Jeremy Porter Road Blog

Road Blog: Friday October 23, 2026 - Knoxville, TN

Road Blog
October 23, 2026
Knoxville, Tennessee

We woke up and drank coffee in our AirBB in Ringgold, Georgia for a couple hours on Friday morning. I changed the strings on my Reverend guitar, did the blog, took a shower, and we headed into Chattanooga. Our friend Erica suggested a place called Puckett's, which is a small southeastern chain originating in Nashville. Troopergirl22 and I ate at the Nashville one when we were there to see Tom Waits at the Ryman Auditorium about 20 years ago and I remembered it being awesome then, so I was excited to check out the Chattanooga location. It’s a sort of diner-music venue hybrid with a barn-motif. I got the Farmboy Breakfast Sandwich, despite the fact that I am not a Farmboy, substituting tomato for eggs and sourdough for Texas toast. It ruled! Thanks for the tip Erica!

JakeE Jacob took the wheel as we headed north up I-75 to Knoxville. We listened to the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack and the next Pink Floyd album in the discography – Momentary Lapse of Reason. This was the first one without Roger Waters. It suffers from bad 80’s production, including a drum machine on some tracks, and Waters’ absence is absolutely a detriment, but I still thought it was a decent record, more so than JakeE, who found very little to enjoy in it. The songs were well written and arranged, with little of the meandering, psychedelic jamming I struggle with on the pre-Dark Side stuff.

We hit Market Square in Knoxville and did a lap around. It’s an outdoor walking area of shops, restaurants, bars, and other local stuff. We stopped into the Preservation Pub, where our show was to be, as Troy hadn’t been in there before, and showed him the room. Around the corner we grabbed a photo at the Dolly Parton mural, where I’ve got at least 5 photos from years past, with multiple iterations of the Tucos’ lineup. We walked down Gay Street, the main drag of the area, and across the Gay Street Bridge, which spans the Tennessee River. It’s a great spot for some photos and to soak in a lovely, sunny, fall Tennessee day. These mid-day, outdoor walks we’ve been able to get in every couple cities have really helped us recharge.

After that we hit Lost And Found Records, one of my favorite record stores. JakeE was very excited to snag a copy of Last Call for Vitriol by Superdrag, an album he’s been after for some time. They’re carrying our new GTG Records album now, so stop on in and pick one up if you’re local to Knoxville! Great people there who know us when we walk in and always have a friendly hello. I left empty-handed, and oddly haven’t bought a single album on this run (yet), which I don’t believe has ever happened.

We enjoyed a couple hours of downtime at our dive motel. I got a little nappy in and Troy assumed his casket-corpse-pose and slept like the dead. I went to get some ice so we’d have it ready when we got back late at night, and it turned into a scavenger hunt of conflicting signs, broken ice machines, and elevators in such disrepair that I feared for my life. Effing debacle. Over at the Pub we met Tre-Scott, the drummer for the second band Jah Phuzion. Troy would be using his drums, so they talked logistics and we loaded in. Super nice fella, and good to know him!

We set up, destroyed a couple pizzas, had a pint, and went on at 8PM. There was a pretty good crowd assembled, but mostly watching semi-passively from the bar. We took a short break and went up to the rooftop bar to get a little air and check out the view while the room downstairs started to fill up. The second set was definitely livelier and more interactive, and that’s what we’ve come to expect. There were some rowdy college dudes rooting us on and a group of super cute UT girls bopping along across the room from them. One fella a little further back bought us a round of Malort shots, which JakeE likes, Troy tolerates, and I do not. We quickly got off the stage and loaded out. It’s a tough load-out with no real parking so you have to kinda just find a spot and hit your hazards and make short work of it. No probs, we’ve done it many times, just not easy. Jah Phuzion went on a little after 11:30 and had the room rocking. We were parked illegally so we couldn’t stay long, but we dug the couple songs we saw, and they are definitely fantastic musicians.

We always love playing that room and working with the people there. It always starts a little slow and picks up steam as people come in, and it always gets rowdy. The first spot is 8-11, which is really nice to not be up until 4am, but the second slot is 11:30-2:30, and it’s a later crowd, so generally a better show. It’s also grandfathered in as a smoking bar, so the new-car-small in my van is officially a thing of the past as our gear all smells like cigarettes now. It’s all worth it for a good gig, playing to good people, and we needed one after the last couple nights.

Troy once again was the default designated driver, and we are grateful that one amongst us has the sense to keep his shit together at the bar. JakeE took a shower and crashed out while Troy and I had a nightcap and watched Zombieland: Double Tap with Emma Stone and Woody Harrelson. I am not a zombie movie type `a fella, but I can watch Emma Stone in anything. Troy was more into it, passionately giving me the plot lowdown as it rolled along. Around 1:30am I started fading pretty quickly and crashed out.

This morning hit pretty hard after the Malort and the cigarette smoke and the Emma Stone movie, but I managed to crawl out of the tomb around 8am and do the zombie walk down to the dive motel lobby for some shitty coffee and a stale bagel, toasted with peanut butter. We’re hoping to hit a @Bojangles for some fried chicken breakfast this morning on our way to Newport, Kentucky, where we’ll wrap up this tour at the The Southgate House Revival, a great room we haven’t played in 8 years. Hope to see some of my KY pals out!

Big thanks again to Scott and everyone at the Pres Pub. We feel very fortunate to play there, and hope to get back next year! xx