The Southern Belle is a riverboat in Chattanooga, Tennessee that was summoned into existence by Captain Robert M. Lumpp, who owned the Mark Twain Riverboat in Hannibal, Missouri. Lumpp owned over 5 riverboat operations, including one in Knoxville, Tennessee. Lumpp began The Southern Belle with one simple mission: give guests a great experience of Chattanooga.
The Southern Belle originally ran a few months through the year, giving 20-30,000 passengers an unforgettable experience on the Tennessee River. In current day, they cruise year-round and carry over 100,000 passengers a year. The riverboat offers daily cruises, lunch cruises, and is broken down into a grand banquet hall and full-service restaurant on the story above. Click here to learn more about their story and current offerings.
The Riverboat Ramblers were an entertainment ensemble primarily formed for entertainment on Chattanooga’s aforementioned iconic Southern Belle, which the album is named after. The group consisted of Dickie “Piddlin’” Matthews, Dale Meador, and Junior Honeycutt, and they performed on the Southern Belle nearly 25 years. These men mostly came from backgrounds in music, Dickie backed up Elvis on piano in his day and had met the likes of Jimmy Dean, Stuart Hamblen, and Pasty Cline.
Dickie recalls his most requested song on calliope was “Rocky Top”, and hearing the steam organ ring through downtown Chattanooga as he played during lunch hour each day. “There aren’t many of those left in the United States”, Dickie says in reference to his calliope. Honeycutt’s career was with Combustion Engineering, and Meador was an account executive with WDOD Radio during this time. We have solo tapes by Dale Meador and Dickie Matthews and will eventually further into their stories and backgrounds.
It is beautiful to have the Southern Belle thriving alive and well, and we hope to one day see the Delta Queen (1927-2008) return, which has been in Louisiana since 2015 receiving repairs and awaiting approval. The Delta Queen was more than $1,000,000 to build and, when repaired, will be the nation’s last authentic overnight passenger steamboat that is fully intact and capable of traveling the inland waterways of America.
The Riverboat Ramblers remain an ensemble today, with new members having rotated in to keep music alive in the Southern Belle. Thank you to Jonathan Reinert at the Belle for answering a few questions for us. Listen to the album on YouTube or natively below.