Murfreesboro Night Spot Lets You Listen to the Music
Published Jun 12, 2009
The music scene and night scene are lively in downtown Murfreesboro, where venues such as the Maple Street Grill offer live entertainment, including a “music in the round” series on Wednesday nights.
Professional singer/songwriter Diane Untz and her husband, Jack, hosting the Music in the Boro series, invite two seasoned professional singer/songwriters or independent music artists to perform with them each week.
The “in-the-round” format puts the performers in the middle of the audience, creating and intimate and up-close listening experience. For more, go to www.musicintheboro.com.
Road Ready
Getting around Rutherford County is getting a bit easier thanks to two road improvement projects. The Tennessee Department of Transportation has begun improvements to State Route 99 (New Salem Highway) that will widen the two-lane road from Eagleville to State Route 269 (Concord Road/Hoover’s Gap Road.)
Murfreesboro also plans improvements to Highway 99 from Old Fort Parkway to Southwest Loop Road, with bids scheduled for 2009. Meantime, a new I-840 interchange has opened at Veterans Parkway. Motorists living in western Murfreesboro will be able to get on the major thoroughfare and gain access to I-24 without having to drive onto Old Fort Parkway.
Expansion Is On the Menu
The Demos family has made the restaurant business a family tradition since 1943. The four-generation family company opened its flagship Murfreesboro eatery in 1989, expanded into downtown Nashville in 1992 and added two other locations in Middle Tennessee in recent years.
Now, the family has opened a Demos’ Restaurant in Florence, Ala., its first location outside Tennessee.
The restaurant offers a diverse menu of value-oriented entrees, and is especially known for its steaks and pastas. For more, go to www.demosrestaurants.com.
Some Positive Publicity
You don’t have to take Murfreesboro’s word that it’s a great place to raise a family.
Business Week in 2008 placed the city on its list of Best Places to Raise Your Kids. The magazine cited housing affordability, the presence of Middle Tennessee State University and abundant recreation and cultural options.
The city “hosts a jazz and a folk music festival in the summer and most major high school sports championships. It has expansive sports fields, including a new $13 million soccer complex,” the magazine noted.
Yea for YEAH
YEAH (Youth Empowerment through Arts and Humanities) is a nonprofit in Murfreesboro that uses a hands-on approach to get young people involved in the arts.
YEAH offers an after-school program that teaches kids the art of sound recording and a screen-printing club that provides hands-on experience in the design of T-shirts and fliers.
The Southern Girls Rock and Roll camp lets girls from 10 to 17 learn about music performance, music appreciation and music-related arts. Ninety campers and 60 volunteers meet for one week at Middle Tennessee State University’s Wright Music Hall to develop their skills in preparation for a final showcase with professional production in front of nearly 1,000 people. For more, go to www.artsempoweryouth.org.
Sign of the Times
Motorists in Rutherford County will now have an easier time finding attractions and points of interest thanks to a Rutherford County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Rutherford County Wayfinding Program Board program.
Some 135 directional signs and nine welcome signs have been put in place. Rutherford County now boasts the only countywide wayfinding signage project in Tennessee.
Visitor trade is big business. In 2007, visitors to Rutherford County created an economic impact of $237.6 million, according to the Travel Industry of America.
Lots of Fiddling Around
They’ll be kicking up some dust in Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro in July at the annual Uncle Dave Macon Days.
The old-time music and dance festival annually gathers more than 45,000 people to honor the memory of Uncle Dave Macon, a longtime Rutherford County resident and one of the first Grand Ole Opry stars.
The event has been selected by the Southeast Tourism Society as one of the Top 20 events in the Southeast. Additionally, the American Bus Association designated Uncle Dave Macon Days as one of the Top 100 Events in North America for 2008. For more, go to www.uncledavemacondays.com.
They Like La Vergne
A Pittsburgh-based company has moved production from four smaller facilities to a new plant in La Vergne.
Chromalox manufactures electric heat and temperature-control products used in industries as diverse as biodiesel and alternative-fuels processing, plastics, pharmaceuticals manufacturing and commercial food equipment.
Its new La Vergne operation was designed and built to embrace the concepts of LEAN manufacturing. The 42,000-square-foot facility began full-capacity operations in spring 2009 and employs between 300 and 350 people.
Working on Big Ideas
Rutherford County is home base to Mind2Marketplace, a consortium with representatives from more than 40 Middle Tennessee counties that works to bring leading-edge technology ideas to the marketplace.
Members include representatives from business, government and education, and the Murfreesboro-based group has ties to both the Oak Ridge National Laboratories and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The group’s primary focus areas are in biotechnology, aviation and aerospace, and distribution. For more, go to www.mind2marketplace.com.
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