Great Music and Local Flavors

March 07 2008 by Bill Smith

I came to Chapel Hill as a student in 1967, and have pretty much always had an address here ever since. I loved the fact that the town was full of people who felt no need to conform to ordinary rules of behavior. You couldn’t do that in New Bern in 1967. I’ve worked in restaurants pretty much the whole time I’ve lived here. I began cooking seriously in the mid seventies and the next thing I knew I was a chef.

One of the things that have kept me here is the local music. We’ve always had extraordinary musicians here. We have a collection of sturdy clubs that have been around forever and I believe that you can see a show every night of the week, every month of the year. We have a great free form radio station at WXYC. We’re really quite spoiled here. In the eighties we began to attract record labels, music publishing houses and recording studios as well. Now it’s a cottage industry. Everyone who knows modern music knows Chapel Hill.

Music is at the top of my list, but that list also includes basketball, progressive local governments, our wonderful system of public transportation, the hundreds of artists who live in the area, the Farmers’ Market, and of course all of our wonderful restaurants.

Oh yeah, We’re half way between Cape Hatteras and the Great Smokey Mountains.