Great question. A lot of government agencies consider Kentucky as part of the southeast, but I would say that culturally Kentucky falls squarely into Appalachia, along with West Virginia, Tennessee, western NC, southwestern Virginia, and southern Ohio. I would also say that Kentucky has a pretty wide metro/rural split, with Lexington and Berea being very different places.
This is basically how I think of it. I know states aren't one thing, all the way through, but I categorize Kentucky with TN, NC, and WV. There are parts of OH that are basically KY, and NC gets much different further east, but generally, it makes sense. Definitely not midwest. Clearly not Southeast, despite UK being in the SEC.
South of Ohio and north of Tennessee? I think. I lived in Louisville for 5 months, which was fairly strange. A high school girlfriend moved from New England to hickledicklefuck eastern Kentucky and somehow got a southern accent and became a fascist Christian in about 6 months. The church she was in, though, split off from the main one in town over a dispute about speaking in tongues and snake handling.
I do - I’ve both seen & heard some shit first & second hand. I’m guessing she fell into some extremist Pentecostal groups as they both speak in tongue & handle snakes.
Also areas full of Christian’s like that can really wrap the minds of people you’d think would know better. To this day I’m still bothered by how my area ruined the lives of 2 artists that I was convinced were going to go on to do great things. I fully blame the area they grew up in, so much talent squandered - literally any where else their talents would have got noticed & no telling how much better their lives would have been.
Before playing Statele, I would have told you it was in the deep south, and on the Atlantic coast. I'm continually surprised both by how far north it is, and how not Tennessee it is.
Technically the Midwest is called that because it was formed from the Midwest Territory in the early 1800's. Also, Kentucky isn't midwest because it was never part of the Midwest Territory. It's Appalachian