Night 5 of 12 is in the books. On Friday, September 18, 2026, Bristol Sessions Nights: A True Taste of Tennessee brought Tennessee whiskey, local food and live country music to the Bristol Listening Room in the L.C. King Building in downtown Bristol, Tennessee. Stephen Callahan, Founder of Tennessee Hills Distillery, opened the evening with a four-pour tasting flight. Ryder Casey played the first set. The Adrian Bundy Band closed the night.
Bristol Sessions Nights is presented by the City of Bristol, Tennessee, one night a month on the Road to 100, the countdown to the centennial of the 1927 Bristol Sessions in 2027. Each night tells a chapter of that story. This one was about what the region pours and plates alongside what it plays.
Four Pours, Then the Music
The whiskey came first. Stephen Callahan led the tasting himself, and he promised as much in the Tennessee Hills newsletter on September 3:
"I'm leading the whiskey tasting myself, and I don't mean a pour and a walk-away. I mean actually walking you through what's in the glass and why it tastes like that."
Stephen Callahan, Founder, Tennessee Hills Distillery
The tasting card on the tables listed the flight in order: TN 250 Wheated Tennessee Whiskey, Apple Brandy made with apples from Jeter Mountain Farms, Green Label Bourbon and Cask Strength Bourbon. Tennessee Hills Distillery, a privately owned distillery and brewstillery, billed it as "four pours, four chapters," with a story behind every glass. The chapters ran from the Overmountain Men crossing the ridge with copper stills on their backs to the year eleven generations of the Callahan family went legal.
The Smokestillery, the kitchen at Tennessee Hills, handled the food: smo-fried wings, brisket kabobs, mac and cheese and Hawaiian rolls. Bristol Session West Coast Pilsner, the official beer of the series, was on tap too.
Then the music. Ryder Casey, out of Erwin, Tennessee, took the stage with his acoustic guitar and Mikaela Langley on fiddle, under the Bristol Sessions Nights sign on the brick wall. The room listened from its round tables.
The Adrian Bundy Band brought the full country lineup. Adrian Bundy sang and played bass, with electric guitar, fiddle, pedal steel and drums behind him. Adrian Bundy brought the audience to its feet. The City of Bristol said the Bristol Listening Room "got (responsibly) rowdy on Friday night." The photos agree. One guest threw both arms in the air toward the stage. A couple danced beside the Ralph Peer Street sign.
Every night in the series gets its own poster by a local artist. Sydney Jackson made the Night 5 poster. She is an illustrator and ceramicist with a BFA in Illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design, and she works in gouache, ink and paper collage, drawing on Appalachia for inspiration.
Meet the Artists
Ryder Casey
Ryder Casey comes from Erwin, Tennessee. He plays neo-traditional country with Southern rock underneath it, the Tyler Childers end of the spectrum. His name keeps coming up in rooms bigger than the ones he plays now.
Stephen Callahan put it plainly ahead of the show: Ryder Casey, "out of Erwin, who is as talented as they come."
The Adrian Bundy Band
Adrian Bundy came up through ETSU's Bluegrass, Old-Time & Country Music program and plays with the university's Tennessee Fire band. He taught himself to play on a 1994 Fender he found under a bed.
His music is classic honky-tonk. On Night 5 his band carried it with pedal steel, fiddle, electric guitar and drums, and Adrian Bundy held the middle of the stage on bass and vocals.
From 1927 to the Road to 100
In the summer of 1927, Ralph Peer of the Victor Talking Machine Company set up a temporary studio on State Street in Bristol to record regional musicians. Those sessions launched the careers of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.
Bristol Sessions Nights counts down to the 100th anniversary of those recordings, with the Birthplace of Country Music providing historical stewardship. Night 5 falls in Act II, The Evolution, which follows how Bristol's spark shaped bluegrass, songwriting and mountain music traditions across a century. A True Taste of Tennessee set that music beside the food and spirits of the same hills. The road leads to the Bristol Sessions Festival and The 100th Session, the centennial weekend on May 28 and 29, 2027.
More Photos
See the flight, both sets and the dancing in the Night 5 photo gallery.
Next Stop on the Road to 100: Night 6, The Pickers
Catch up on the previous chapter in the Night 4: Mountain Songs recap.
Next stop on the Road to 100: Night 6, The Pickers, on Friday, October 16, 2026, at the Bristol Listening Room. Tim Stafford and Friends headline. Tim Stafford was born and raised in Kingsport, Tennessee. He played on Alison Krauss and Union Station's Grammy-winning Every Time You Say Goodbye, formed Blue Highway in 1994, and was named IBMA Songwriter of the Year in 2014, 2017 and 2023. Greg Cornett, Bobby Starnes and Glenn Rose are confirmed to join him. The night is built around instrumental picking and is planned to close with a community jam. The music starts at 7:30 p.m.
Single-night tickets are $27, and every night is capped at 100 seats. Grab your ticket, look into the Series Passport, or read about all 12 chapters.
Thank you to the City of Bristol, Tennessee, Tennessee Hills Distillery, the ETSU Appalachian Music Collective, the Birthplace of Country Music, Explore Bristol and Believe in Bristol. Thank you, Bristol. See you at the Bristol Listening Room.
Photos by Jahlil White. Additional photos contributed by The City of Bristol, Tennessee and ETSU. Artist photos courtesy of the artists.
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