In the summer of 1927, a Victor Records executive named Ralph Peer set up a makeshift studio on State Street in Bristol, Tennessee. Over two weeks, he recorded the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and dozens of Appalachian musicians who had walked, ridden, and hitchhiked in from the mountains around them. Those tapes became known as the Bristol Sessions. Country music has a birthplace because of them.

In May 2027, that birthplace turns 100.

Tennessee Hills is spending the next two years honoring the road to that centennial. Co-produced with the ETSU Appalachian Music Collective and supported by the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, Bristol Sessions Nights is a 12-night songwriter series running every third Thursday through April 2027. One stage. Real songwriters. The stories behind every song. And one beer pouring at every single night: the Bristol Sessions West Coast Pilsner, the official beer of the series.

It releases at Night 1 on May 22, 2026.

1927: The Recordings That Made Bristol the Birthplace of Country Music

Before the Bristol Sessions, country music wasn't really called country music. It was hillbilly music, mountain music, old-time string band music. It lived on porches and at barn dances and inside the heads of farmers and miners and railroad workers who never expected anyone to write it down.

Ralph Peer brought a microphone to Bristol because the technology was finally portable enough to leave New York. He set up at 408 State Street, hung quilts on the walls for soundproofing, and put out word in the local papers that he was paying performers to record. They came from Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky. Some of them had never seen a microphone before. A couple of them changed American music forever.

The Carter Family recorded "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow." Jimmie Rodgers recorded "The Soldier's Sweetheart." Both went on to become foundational figures of country music. Congress later designated Bristol the official Birthplace of Country Music. The state line runs straight down the middle of State Street, which means the recordings were technically split between Tennessee and Virginia, but Bristol has always been one town with two ZIP codes and a single story to tell.

That story is what we're celebrating for the next two years.

Bristol Sessions Nights: A Twelve-Month Road to 100

Bristol Sessions Nights is built on a simple idea. If 1927 mattered, the road to 2027 should matter too. Twelve nights, twelve lineups, twelve chances to sit in a room with songwriters who are carrying the tradition forward and hear the stories behind the songs they wrote.

The series is a partnership. The ETSU Appalachian Music Collective brings the academic and curatorial muscle. The City of Bristol brings the streets where it all started. The Birthplace of Country Music Museum brings the keeper of the flame. Tennessee Hills brings the beer and the brand. 

"Tennessee Hills has been building alongside ETSU and the City of Bristol for years," said Tennessee Hills founder Stephen Callahan. "We helped ETSU launch its Brewing and Distillation Sciences program in 2021. We built our Bristol campus on West State Street to plant something permanent in this community. To be trusted by the City of Bristol and the ETSU Appalachian Music Collective to help shape the road to country music's 100th anniversary is the honor of a career.

"To celebrate that honor, Tennessee Hills will release the Bristol Sessions West Coast Pilsner, the official beer of Bristol Sessions Nights. It's a Tennessee beer for a Tennessee story."

Brewed on the Hill for a Long Bristol Night

A West Coast Pilsner is a specific thing. It's lighter than an IPA. It's crisper than a lager. It carries hop character without the bitter punch, and it finishes dry enough to make you want another one. Done right, it's the most drinkable beer in a brewery's lineup.

Done wrong, it's a watery lager with extra hops.

Jake Terry, Tennessee Hills' Director of Innovation, came up brewing on the West Coast. He spent years at White Labs in San Diego, the yeast lab that supplies most of America's best breweries. He knows what a real West Coast Pilsner is supposed to taste like because he made them where the style was born

The Bristol Sessions West Coast Pilsner pours pale gold. The nose pulls pine and a touch of citrus from the dry hop. The body is light and clean from the cold fermentation and the long lager rest. The finish is dry, crisp, and built for a second pour. It clocks in at a sessionable ABV, which is the whole point. You can sit through a four-hour songwriter showcase, drink three pints, and walk out clear-headed and humming the last hook.

It's brewed at America's largest privately-owned Brewstillery, on The Hill in Bristol, in the same city from where Ralph Peer recorded the Carter Family. It pours at every Bristol Sessions Night through next April. And, of course, at the Bristol Sessions Festival on Memorial Day weekend, 2027.

After that, we'll see. The centennial year deserves something special.

For Everyone Who Carries the Tradition

The thing about the original Bristol Sessions is that the artists weren't celebrities. They were neighbors. The Carter Family lived an hour up the road in Maces Spring, Virginia. Jimmie Rodgers was a brakeman on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The recordings worked because they were honest, not because they were polished.

That's the spirit we're chasing for the next two years.

"We wanted the road to the centennial to be something everyone can be part of, not something they just heard about," Callahan said. "This is for the folks down the street, the college students in our area, and the working artists who carry on the tradition of country music. That's who we want in the room when we celebrate 100 years of what started right here."

Night 1 is $27. So are the nights that follow. The series Passport gets you entry to all 12 nights and VIP access to the Centennial Festival for $300. Bring your ears.

Night 1: May 22, 2026

Bristol Sessions Nights kicks off this Friday.

Lineup: Ed Snodderly, Chance Lawson, Seth Thomas, with an opening set from Logan & McKenna.

Doors: 6:30 PM. 
Music: 7:00 PM.
Where: The Bristol Listening Room at the L.C. King Building, 24 7th St., Bristol, TN 37620

The Bristol Sessions West Coast Pilsner makes its debut on the same night the series does. Subsequent nights run monthly at the historic L.C. King Building on State Street. The full lineup and dates can be found on the Bristol Sessions Festival website. Share with a friend who's been waiting for a reason to come to Bristol.

The road to country music's 100th anniversary runs through Tennessee Hills for the next 23 months. The Bristol Sessions West Coast Pilsner is how we're marking time.

If you want first access to the centennial year programming, exclusive Sessions-night experiences, and the limited bottlings we're releasing along the way, join the Helix Society. Founding members get the inside track on every Bristol Sessions Night and the centennial weekend in May 2027.

100 years started here. The next 100 start now. Pull up a chair.