Clarksville Living Magazine — August 2026
August’s Clarksville Living Magazine leaves the interstate for Dolly Parton’s new Tennessean Travel Stop, raises a glass to Beachaven’s 40th Jazz on the Lawn, and catches Arts for Hearts at its ten-year mark.
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The cover feature follows Chris Lancia to Cornersville, a Marshall County town most drivers pass without a thought, where Dolly Parton’s Tennessean Travel Stop opened in June at Exit 22. Parton framed it as a roadside stop meant to welcome travelers rather than hurry them along, and the building backs that up: an original mural painted as a tribute to the town, a replica of her tour bus out front, the Cup of Ambition coffee bar, a DLY BBQ buffet heavy on Southern staples, a music stage beneath her neon signature, a rooftop bar over the county, and a Doggy Parton dog park. It is roughly a 75-minute drive from Clarksville, and the first of several the company plans across the region.
Closer to home, Beachaven Vineyards & Winery celebrated 40 years with “Cheers to 40 Years,” a Jazz on the Lawn anniversary that pulled well over a thousand guests. Abby Scurlock traced the winery to its 1986 start on the same ground and called it Tennessee’s oldest family-owned winery; the Clarksville Jazz Collective, an early Jazz on the Lawn act, played the anniversary set. The Nashville Symphony, meanwhile, made what Montgomery County Parks & Recreation counts as roughly its fifth appearance at Downtown Commons for the free summer concert series, with Copland and Berlioz on the program and outdoor movie nights filling out the season.
Christie Crawford marks ten years of Arts for Hearts Clarksville, the volunteer-run mobile art program seeded by a $5,000 gift from songwriter Kara Dioguardi and built on the Empty Bowls fundraiser Rita Arancibia helped launch in 2009. The group runs several free classes a month around the county and created the “Pillars of Hope” tile monument in Veterans Plaza. The issue also stops by the third Oddities and Curiosities Market, which added a no-AI rule for vendors this year, and the sixth Clarksville Juneteenth Block Party at Historic Dixon Park.
The Chamber’s Veteran Business of the Month is North Central Institute, an aviation-maintenance school founded by Army veteran Dr. John D. McCurdy in 1988 and recently sold by his daughter, president Tami Taliento, to another Army veteran, Lamar Haynes. Kacie Bryant opened Local CoLAB, a 1,600-square-foot shared workspace on Tenth Street, and Matt Schorr brought his seven-year-old along to review Cheesy J’s, the year-old gourmet grilled-cheese restaurant in Sango whose beach theme honors the late Debbie Bryant.
America’s 250th anniversary threads through the issue, from the Cumberland Winds Concert Band’s “Road to 250” program to Bikers Who Care’s first TriStar Car Show and a DAR Flag Day celebration that seated a new chapter administration and honored six veterans with Quilts of Valor. Elsewhere: the Society for Creative Anachronism at Liberty Park, the library’s Touch a Truck, a profile of 21-year-old Erin singer-songwriter Bryant Lemons, and the 118th Lone Oak Picnic in Cunningham, held through the rain. Publisher Tony Centonze uses his note to remember three friends — Jeff Burkhart, Dr. John Butler and Ali Peifer — and to recommend Auden’s “Funeral Blues.”
Table of Contents
- The Exit Worth Taking (p. 6)
- 40th Jazz on the Lawn (p. 8)
- Nashville Symphony (p. 10)
- Arts for Hearts (p. 12)
- Oddities and Curiosities Market (p. 14)
- Bikers Who Care Car Show (p. 16)
- North Central Institute (p. 18)
- Touch a Truck (p. 20)
- Local CoLAB Grand Opening (p. 22)
- Society for Creative Anachronism (p. 26)
- DAR Flag Day Celebration (p. 28)
- Bryant Lemons (p. 30)
- Juneteenth Celebration (p. 32)
- Business After Hours (p. 34)
- Bayanihan Pista Sa Nayon (p. 36)
- Cheesy J’s (p. 38)
- America 250: Cumberland Winds (p. 40)
- Lone Oak Picnic (p. 42)
- Customs House Jammin’ in June (p. 44)
Regular Departments
- Watermelon Wonder Fruit (p. 24)
- Calendar (p. 45)
