Down the Road on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina

Rare Bird Farm in the mountains of Madison County is an agricultural arts center that hosts performing arts, classes, workshops, and community events, all centered around the ideas of creativity, connection, and collaboration. While not a commercial farm, Rare Bird also raises animals, medicinal plants, and food. We spent some time with Mitchell Davis and Farrah Hoffmire or Rare Bird to learn more...

An intersection of the natural and musical heritage of WNC can be found in the high mountains. Red Spruce ( picea rubens ) is prominent at altitudes above 5,000 feet in the Southern Appalachians. It’s also one of the primary tonewoods used in traditional construction of mandolins and guitars. For this episode, we spent time with conservationist Marquette Crockett and luthier James Condino to learn...

Traditional music in WNC is a cultural practice that expands into many ways to make a living. We most often think of performers, but for every live music event that takes place, there are folks behind the scenes crossing “I’s” and dotting “T’s” to make sure everything goes off without a hitch. One of the leaders in the event promotion industry is Claire Armbruster who owns and operates Planning St...

Rhonda Gouge has done a lot. She’s been a fixture in the Mitchell County music scene since the 1970s, she can play at least a dozen instruments, she’s recorded multiple albums under her own name as well as with others, she’s performed with legendary musicians such as Red Wilson, she’s taught traditional music to more than 1,000 students, and in 2023 she was awarded the North Carolina Heritage Awar...

In Season One of Down the Road on the Blue Ridge Music Trails of NC, we introduced you to banjo stylist Charlie Poole. In Season 5, we're excited to bring you a reading of Louise Wright Price's children's book, Charlie & His Banjo: The Story of Charlie Pool . 

What do you get when an MD and Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Surgery takes up the banjo? An expertly conducted survey of 32 WNC banjo players! Dr. William Allsbrook, Jr. turned his skills and attention to such a project when he noticed just how many great banjo players lived in Haywood County. His study resulted in a book, Making Music: The Banjo in a Southern Appalachian County . In this ep...

Western North Carolina musical icon Betty Smith passed away on December 1, 2023. Betty was a performer of ballads and traditional songs for decades, but to say only this would be falling short of her large and living legacy. Throughout the course of her life, Betty also took on roles as an educator, an activist, an author, a playwright, and honorary doctorate recipient, and more. This episode look...

Madison County is home to a centuries old ballad singing tradition which has attracted interest for over a century. In 1916, Englishman, Cecil Sharp traveled to Western North Carolina to hear the old ballads that were no longer being freely sung in England. A new album revives this Transatlantic connection. We sat down with Thomm Jutz, singer-songwriter and co-producer of Nothing But Green Willow:...

Terry Roberts was born and raised in Asheville, NC. An award-winning author of five novels, much of Terry’s writing takes place in and around the mountains of WNC. Music finds its way into much of Terry’s work, including novels entitled A Short Time to Stay Here and That Bright Land. In our conversation with Terry, he shared his thoughts on particularities and the intersection of writing, music, a...

In Seasons 4 and 5, we’ve had the honor and privilege to bring you stories of the Blue Ridge Music Trails’ Fine Tuned project. This mentorship and collaboration-based professional development project has sought to foster development in WNC’s traditional music ecosystem. This episode explores the musical partnerships and the music they created with insight into the groups and selections from the tr...

Plott-Tober fest is a new festival set to take place in Canton in 2023. This festival celebrates North Carolina's State Dog, the Plott Hound, as well as the German heritage of Haywood County. We spoke with festival organizer Bob Plott to learn more about the Plott Hound, German influence in Haywood County, and the festival itself, which will feature plenty of WNC traditional music. 

Music inhabits its purest form when people get together to make music with one another. In this spirit, the fiddlers’ convention is an essential element of the traditional music ecosystem in Western North Carolina. This episode is adapted from an article by music writer Derek Halsey revisiting a newspaper article from the Watauga Democrat published on June 14, 1928 covering a fiddlers convention i...

The Cherokee Language Repertory Choir started in the spring of 2023. This choir uses the Christian Harmony shaped note tradition, but instead of singing it traditionally, in English, this choir sings in the Cherokee language. This effort revives a documented tradition of shaped note singing in the Cherokee community while helping to keep the Cherokee language a part of cultural practice in Western...

The Peacock Performing Arts Center in Hayesville presents a wide range of programming. It's Songwriters Series is a highlight of the lineup. Hosted by local songwriter Rob Tiger, the series brings some of the top songwriters in the field to Clay County. The Showcase functions as a songwriters round, giving some audience members a new way to experience uniquely crafted songs.

Kelley Breiding is a musician who wears a lot of hats, at least one of which is often a cowboy hat and complements a vibrant, handcrafted outfit. Kelley is part of multiple bands and projects including her Blue Ridge Opry and the Blue Ridge Music Trails’ Fine Tuned project. This episode features a conversation with Kelley in which you can learn more about her journey and the music she makes and lo...

Did you know that Black Mountain had an integrated juke joint and that Bessie Smith performed there? On this episode we feature an oral history with Katherine Debrow, courtesy of the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center, that discusses her grandfather, Horace Chambers Rutherford; his juke joint, Roseland Gardens; and the culture and history of Black Mountain.

The Blue Ridge Music Trails covers 29 counties throughout the mountains and foothills of Western North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkways runs directly through this territory and is never far from authentic traditional music. In this episode, we outline more of the stops you can take on the Blue Ridge Music Trails while you travel the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

The Blue Ridge Music Trails covers 29 counties throughout the mountains and foothills of Western North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkways runs directly through this territory and is never far from authentic traditional music. In this episode, we outline some of the stops you can take on the Blue Ridge Music Trails while you travel the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Darren Nicholson has been a fixture in the WNC and national music scenes for almost two decades. The year 2023 marks a series of new endeavors for Darren. In this episode he talks about learning from Steve Sutton, the inaugural Steve Sutton Festival, WNC's unique style of bluegrass, and his own path as a solo musician.

The Blue Ridge Music Trails’ Fine Tuned project is a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. This episode focuses on the Josh Jones' work with his mentor Sav Sankaran. Josh studies classical voice at the UNC School for the Arts. Sav also studied classical voice and today sings and plays b...

The Blue Ridge Music Trails’ Fine Tuned project is a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. For this episode, we spent time with Bayla Davis and her mentor, Cary Fridley, to learn more about their work together. These two women have worked together to blend their voices, to explore strat...

Fine Tuned is a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. In this episode, David LaMotte and Benjamin Barker talk about why they play music, music in North Carolina, what they have gained from working on the Fine Tuned project, and more. 

The Blue Ridge Music Trails’ Fine Tuned project is a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. For this episode, we sat down with the Allen Boys, DaSahwn Hickman, and Kelley Breiding to discuss their collaboration and the inspiring collision of their musical traditions.

Fine Tuned is a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. Jarrett Wildcat and Keaw'e Bone are are both deeply connected with traditional music in Cherokee, NC, but for their work on the Fine Tuned project, Jarrett and Keaw’e decided to do something a little different, create their own origi...

Fine Tuned is a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in Western North Carolina. Fine Tuned has brought together five groups of musicians to work together on personal goals and professional recording.