Featured image: Visit ShelbyKY
I’ve spent enough time as a professional traveler to understand noise. Car horns blaring, construction equipment revving, the weird hydraulic whir only an Airbus makes, sirens and subwoofers, and a thundering herd of people rushing for what, exactly? No one knows.
Shelby County, Kentucky, sounds nothing like that.
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On a cool November morning, my eyes took it all in first. I watched townspeople string garlands around light posts and shop owners fluff fake snow in their window displays, when a toy train flopped dramatically off its track. Then it was my nose enjoying the nostalgic aroma of comfort food drifting from the front porch of The Bell House Restaurant. I scurried inside as quick as I could.
Once inside, the soundtrack was delightful: cheery conversation, silverware on plates, and ice clinking in glasses of sweet tea. I settled in and ordered the hot brown—it’s the best in town, I’m told.
After lunch, I drove down serene Kentucky backroads with the radio off until I reached Lettleiki Icelandics. This breed of horses is smaller and stockier than the Saddlebreds that Shelby County is famous for, and because of that, they make a completely different sound when they move. Their gaits are smoother and quieter, as if they’re gliding rather than running. But nearby at Kismet Saddlebred Farm, the tune changes entirely—louder gaits, trainers calling commands.
In true Kentucky fashion, there’s also bourbon, the sound of which goes beyond a pour in a glass. At Jeptha Creed Distillery, a mother-daughter operation making spirits from heirloom Bloody Butcher Corn, I cozied up for a barrel tasting in one of their rickhouses. Although modern and beautiful, the building itself creaks in the wonderful way wood does. If you listen closely, barrels shift ever so subtly on their racks, the wood expanding and contracting with temperature changes, tiny bits of the good stuff evaporate for the angels.
Then I wandered the historic Main Street in Downtown Shelbyville, taking it all in – the sounds and smells of local coffee roasting, the soft dings of storefront doors opening and closing, the charming sound of neighbors catching up in the street. But a block away, Shelbyville’s soundtrack rewound to 1825.
Antique shopping at Wakefield-Scearce Galleries is steeped in respect, remembrance, and reverence. The 30,000-square-foot space, housed in a former girls’ boarding school, is now filled to the brim with collectibles and silver. As you make your way through, the sound of your footsteps echoes on old hardwood floors, and, if you imagine hard enough, you can hear the girls etching their initials in the windows a century prior.
Shelby County doesn’t sound like much, which is sort of the whole point. I never realize how much noise I carry around until it stops. Spending a few slow days here was a treat for the senses… especially the one that got to rest.
This article is presented in partnership by Visit ShelbyKY, a Modern South Founding Partner.
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