Kentucky’s Former Poet Laureate Puts Owensboro on the Map of Great Southern Music Towns

In May of 2024, Owensboro's monthly Chamber of Commerce Rooster Booster breakfast hosted then-Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House, who spoke on the topic "Knowledge Builds Community." During the presentation, House shared his personal story about growth, about how books and the library directed his path and made him what he is today.

Silas House

What Silas House is today is a Grammy-nominated, New York Times best-selling author who has written nine novels, four plays, and a work of creative nonfiction. He has twice been awarded the Southern Book Prize, been honored with the Duggins Prize, the Booklist Editors’ Prize, the Storylines Prize from the New York Public Library/NAV Foundation, and the E.B. White Honor Award.

While House's term as poet laureate ended in 2024, he is still making Kentucky headlines, and they'll likely be especially welcome around here.

Silas House Writes About the Owensboro Music Scene

It's safe to say that Owensboro has proven time and time again that it is flush with great musical talent. We see it every Friday at 5 during the summer. We see it on the porches of Griffith Avenue during PorchFest. It's such an impressive musical landscape that Silas House has written a piece about Owensboro as part of a larger story about the great music towns of the South. The story has been published in Garden and Gun Magazine, an online publication.

In it, he tells of enjoying Brit Taylor's performance at Friday After 5 and having a conversation in which she, too, praised Owensboro's music game and its status as "one of the coolest river towns."

But it's not just Friday After 5 being showered with laurels; venues, festivals, and our wonderful local restaurants that constantly feature live music were also duly praised.

It's a terrific piece that accompanies an excellent travelogue of the American South's musical heritage. I don't know about you, but I see it as a story that could serve as the perfect guide for a musical tour of the South. Now there's an excellent vacation idea.