The Summer of Love and the Holy Fair
A Story About American Music Festivals

1796, the Presbyterian minister James McGready arrived in Kentucky to take charge of three small congregations near the Tennessee border. The Revolutionary War had only been over for five years, and the alliance of six tribal nations that sought to block American expansion into the northwest had just recently been defeated at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. What was once enemy territory had become a frontier. Newly-minted “American” speculators were now free to claim the land’s vast resources without fear of retaliation or interference. McGready’s arrival preceded a much larger wave of migration that would see hundreds of thousands of settlers pour into the region seeking fortune. He stood ready to meet them there, Bible in hand. McGready’s singular focus was conversion. According to his theology, it required a legitimate change of heart, not just a shift in habits or… Read More...