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All the United States Kentucky Bowling Green Drake Vintage Music & Curios
AO Edited

Drake Vintage Music & Curios

Veritable museum of 20th century country music history.

Bowling Green, Kentucky

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Jennifer Joy Jameson
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Drake Vintage Music & Curios. (rosehips/Flickr)   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosehips/5247...
Drake Vintage Music & Curios. (rosehips/Flickr)   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosehips/5248...
Mr. Freeman Kitchens in his shop. (rosehips/Flickr)   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosehips/5225...
Freeman Kitchens in his shop.   http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosehips/5685...
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The founding member and president emeritus of the Carter Family Fan Club, Freeman Kitchens, operates this long-running record and curio shop. It's been described as a veritable museum of the fan culture of 20th century country music history.

Since the mid-1940s, Kitchens, a man from and of Warren County, Kentucky, has collected and sold early country music recordings out of his general store/post office, today called Drake Vintage Music & Curios. Through this space, popular with locals, Freeman has encouraged a sense of community and engagement in country music history by establishing and operating the official fan club of the Carter Family, in which he and club members published and circulated some of the earliest forms of music journalism and grassroots documentation surrounding each generation of America's beloved country music family.

Kitchens still operates his shop, packed with photos and artifacts from years of involvement with country music and its fans. Stop by to purchase a record and have Freeman give you a tour of his shop to find a rare and unique perspective on early country music history.

Updated as of November 2021: Sadly, Freeman Kitchens passed away on July 8, 2020.  

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Museums And Collections Museums Music Collections Shops Purveyors Of Curiosities

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Twenty minutes from Bowling Green, Kentucky, and about one hour outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

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Added By

Jennifer Joy Jameson

Edited By

tracylynn45

  • tracylynn45

Published

May 1, 2011

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Sources
  • https://www.craftonfuneralhome.com/obituary/willis-freeman-kitchens
  • Citysearch: Drake Vintage Music & Curios: http://national.citysearch.com/profile/37560161/bowling_green_ky/drake_vintage_music_curios.html
  • Topix: Drake Vintage Music & Curios: http://www.topix.com/yp/drake-ky/206663668e-drake-vintage-music-curios
  • Green, Archie. 1972. "Only a Miner." University of Illinois Press.
  • Malone, Bill C. and Jocelyn R. Neal. 2010. "Country Music U.S.A." University of Texas Press, 3rd Revised Ed.
  • Taylor, Barbara. 1977. "Freeman Kitchens and the Freeman Kitchens Collection." Kentucky Folklore Record.
  • http://yoursforthecarters.tumblr.com/
  • EXHIBIT - "Yours for the Carters,": The Vintage Sound Collections of Freeman Kitchens - http://yoursforthecarters.tumblr.com/
Drake Vintage Music & Curios
7487 Plano Road
Bowling Green, Kentucky, 42104
United States
36.821178, -86.416691
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