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Blue Ridge National Heritage Area and Rare Bird Farm Present Fine Tuned Sessions

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Daylong music event and fundraiser focus on the convergence of old time and modern music in an intimate musical setting.

Asheville, NC – A special event partnership between the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (BRNHA) and Rare Bird Farm will take place on Saturday, May 4 and will feature artists from the BRNHA Fine Tuned program and other regional and national acts with musical roots in Appalachian and Americana music. Event proceeds benefit the BRNHA’s Fine Tuned music program. The mission of BRNHA is to sustain, cultivate, and promote the natural and cultural heritage of Western North Carolina, including traditional music.  

The family-friendly event will be held at Rare Bird Farm on May 4th, 2024 with gates opening at 10:30 am and music starting at noon. The event will end at 7 pm, but there will be camping options available. Some later night acoustic sets are planned for overnight guests. Rare Bird Farm, located 18 miles north of Asheville, is an agri-cultural nature retreat and farm that presents intimate barn concerts featuring local, regional and national touring acts from April-October in beautiful Madison County. There will be six acts across two stages with the event built as an intimate music experience, and only 100 tickets being sold. For those purchasing a weekend ticket there will be acoustic and fireside sets on Friday and Saturday night in addition to the full show.

“We are aiming to bring a small group of people into a beautiful and intimate setting and let them have a unique live music experience, said Rare Bird Farm partner Mitchell Davis. “The lineup is a creative mix of old time music and modern Americana with a cross-pollination that will create something very special. Keeping the event small will ensure connection with the artists and provide space for visitors to explore the farm and experience nature along with the music.”

Rare Bird will partner with a local restaurant to provide on-site food options at the event.. “We are also very appreciative of the support of the Madison County Tourism Development Authority,” stated Mitchell. “Their support is helping us keep the event affordable, while we help raise money for the future of the Fine Tuned program.”

Fine Tuned is a mentorship and collaboration-based professional development project for emerging traditional musicians in Western North Carolina. The initial project produced a concert series, an album, and a cohort of artists with new skills and focus. The Fine Tuned Sessions will celebrate this effort and continue the momentum of this dynamic project. 

As part of its cultural offerings, BRNHA also manages the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina, a cultural trail featuring more than 255 sites where locals and visitors can hear traditional music in 29 counties. BRNHA’s Blue Ridge Music Trails offers promotion and interpretation through its website, social media, a newsletter, an annual magazine, podcasts and other programs. 

“BRMT is so excited to partner with Rare Bird Farm for this one-of-a-kind event,” said Brandon Johnson, Blue Ridge National Heritage Area  program manager.  “Rare Bird’s focus on authentic and unique creative opportunities falls right in line BRNHA’s mission and work. What better place to gather that a beautiful farm in the heart of Madison County to celebrate our musical heritage while adding new chapters to our region’s musical traditions,” 

Rare Bird Farm and BRNHA recently partnered on the creation of Madison County – Where Music History is Alive, a mini-documentary film featuring several artists that will also perform at the Fine Tuned Sessions event. See the documentary on YouTube: Madison County – Where Music History is Alive

Early bird tickets and concert + weekend camping options are available on the Rare Bird Farm website:
https://rarebirdfarm.org/performingarts/fine-tuned

 

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EVENT LINEUP INCLUDES:

RARE BIRD BALLAD CIRCLE with Donna Ray Norton, Sheila Kay Adams, William Ritter and Melanie Rice. This is a special ballad circle not to be missed featuring special performances from some of the world’s top performers and preservationists of these special songs.

FINE TUNED SETS with Laura Boosinger, Bayla Davis & Cary Fridley, Brandon Johnson & Troy Harrison, Benjamin Barker and more.

TYLER RAMSEY The former lead guitarist of Band of Horses, Ramsey has also released four acclaimed solo albums, including “For The Morning” in 2019. Ramsey’s latest album “New Lost Ages” (out Feb. 9, 2024) was captured at the legendary Avast! Recording Co. in Seattle, Washington, by storied producer Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, Father John Misty, The Shins, Built to Spill).  Tyler will be playing the Fine Tuned Sessions after an extensive nationwide spring tour in support of his new album.


For more information contact mitchell@rarebirdfarm.org or brandon@blueridgeheritage.com

Cherokee Musicians Featured in New Album with N.C. Artists

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This article appeared in the Cherokee One Feather on February 1, 2023.

By Brooklyn Brown, One Feather Reporter

ASHEVILLE, N.C.— Blue Ridge Music Trails released an album in November of 2023 titled, “Fine Tuned: Volume One” featuring artists from western North Carolina to highlight the musical traditions of the region. Keaw’e Bone and Jarrett Wildcatt, members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), collaborated on a song on the album titled, “Three Demons.”

Bone and Wildcatt have been Cherokee musicians for many years. “I’ve been playing acoustic guitar for over fourteen years and playing the flute for over ten,” Wildcatt said. “Chuck Crowe from the Yellowhill Community taught me basic chords and we’d jam on my grandma’s front porch. I am mostly self-taught in the flute. I learned the basic pentatonic scale and learned to play with feeling.”

Bone commented, “I’ve learned under the tutelage of John John Grant for quite some time since I was a kid. He’s taught me how to sing and powwow and our songs and traditional social dances,” Bone said. “I play flute and sing with a rattle or sing with a drum, or if I don’t have a drum, I play on my belly. Just whatever I have available.”

“Three Demons” is Bone and Wildcatt’s first collaboration together as artists. “I’ve never wrote anything in English before. I told Jarrett, “Whatever’s on your heart, I want you to play it.” So, he started playing his guitar, and I just started writing down words that were coming to me and images and pictures,” Bone said. “We probably went through ten or twelve songs before we really started working on one that had the gravitas to really be on the album.”

The pair complemented each other well on the track. “I really like the duality of everything. So, I wanted Jarrett to play something that he was really excited about and that had a happy, rhythmic tone. He was good at matching that energy, which allowed me the space to get my emotions out,” Bone said.

The song is a high energy tune with harrowing lyricism, “I started the song talking about my auntie who had died from cancer. I was thinking about her and having these lucid experiences of remembrance of her, or maybe not even remembrance, but creating new memories and having her present in the moment in my mind. And then it turned into a processing of my three demons that I must keep in check: women, alcohol, and violence. There’s a line in there that says, “I don’t know who I am when you are near,” and that speaks to all three demons. It’s just an impactful song for me, and I’m not sure if anybody likes it, but I don’t think that’s the point of this music. It was just to get it out because it couldn’t stay.”

Wildcatt noted the importance of sharing their Indigenous perspective on the album. “I feel like it’s important to take up as much “Indigenous space” as possible to let people know that we don’t just sing powwow songs, flute music, or anything stereotypical. Some of my favorite Indigenous singer/songwriters are Aysanabee and Logan Staats.”

As musicians who sing in Cherokee language, the duo had to find a way to infuse their Cherokee identity while writing in English. “If I’m using their language, I want to use the terms of their language to match mine and my ancestors’ passions. I want to unfold the existence of my ancestors in my life, and if I’m incapable of doing it in my language, I’m going to do it in theirs.”

Wildcatt hopes that their music will encourage support for Indigenous artists, “Please continue to support Indigenous musicians and artists. We’re in a time now where Native people can tell their own story, and don’t have to rely on outsiders to do it for us.”

Purchase the album at Fine Tuned – Blue Ridge Music Trails (blueridgemusicnc.com)

Fine Tuned: Volume One Celebrates Tradition and Diversity of Appalachian Music

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This article appeared as the Music Feature in the January 30, 2023 edition of The  Laurel of Asheville.

By Gina Malone

Emerging and seasoned artists gathered recently to record Fine Tuned: Volume One, a vibrant compilation that offers a sampling of today’s Appalachian music in Western North Carolina. The album, released November 1, was a project of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area’s Blue Ridge Music Trails and celebrates musical collaboration between musicians who have been playing for years and bring a wealth of knowledge and experience and those who are emerging with great promise onto the Appalachian music scene. In addition, the album challenges the notion of what the region’s music truly is.

“WNC is fiddle and banjo music, but it is so much more,” says Josh Goforth, the album’s producer. “We have rollicking fiddle and banjo music on the album, but we also have everything from rocking blues, soulful gospel and energetic bluegrass to a spoken word soundscape that takes the listener on a journey through pain and redemption.” A native of Madison County, Goforth has performed at the Grand Ole Opry, the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, in addition to touring extensively at home and abroad with ensembles including Laura Boosinger, Appalachian Trail, the Josh Goforth Trio, Steep Canyon Rangers and Open Road. In 2009, he was nominated for a GRAMMY for his album with David Holt titled Cutting Loose.

It was Goforth’s work helping Madison County ballad singer Donna Ray Norton through the recording process for another project that gave Brandon Johnson, program manager for Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, the idea for Fine Tuned. It originated as a response to the pandemic and the difficulty musicians were having in booking shows. “As venues opened back up, they tended to book tried-and-true acts that would draw an audience,” Johnson says. “This made it harder for up-and-coming artists to get gigs on the more prominent stages. We developed a project that could help emerging musicians who were professional caliber musically to gain training and experience to be able to deliver a professional product in all aspects of the music business.”

Josh Goforth, artist and album producer

With the intent of covering a range of music styles and backgrounds throughout as large an area geographically as possible, Johnson reached out to potential participants. What ensued were four mentorships and two collaborations. Songwriters and musicians contributing to the album’s 10 tracks are The Allen Boys, Benjamin Barker, Keaw’e Bone, Kelly Breiding, Bayla Davis, Cary Fridley, Josh Goforth, DaShawn Hickman, Josh Jones, David LaMotte, Marlee Merritt, Donna Ray Norton, Sav Sankaran and Jarrett Wildcat. Songs featured include traditional standards such as “In the Pines” and “Walking in Jerusalem” as well as four original tunes. “‘Three Demons’ addresses the demons of substance abuse from a Cherokee perspective,” Johnson says, “and ‘Lord, I Need Your Help,’ written during the pandemic, is an honest appraisal of mental health.”

Singer-songwriter David LaMotte, who has performed more than 3,000 concerts world-wide and released 13 full-length CDs during his career of more than 30 years, worked with Benjamin Barker, winner of the 2021 National Hammered Dulcimer Contest at the Winfield Valley Festival. The two had mutual friends, but had never met before sitting down to record together. “Finding ways to stretch and explore is fundamental to being an artist,” LaMotte says, “and working with Benjamin to create music together across genres and somewhat different approaches to music was incredibly satisfying. I love the song we wrote together, which truly sounds like nothing else I’ve ever written.”

DaShawn Hickman

LaMotte appreciates the album for its eclecticism and diversity. “I love that the project brings such a wide understanding of what ‘Appalachian music’ is,” he says. “There are a lot of folks living in WNC, representing a lot of different cultural traditions. They all matter. They all belong. And they all enrich the cultural landscape here.”

A clawhammer banjo player and traditional Appalachian vocalist from Leicester, Bayla Davis is just 15 years old, but has been playing and learning since she was six years old and a part of the Buncombe County Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program. It was there that she met Cary Fridley. “She was the first musician I had ever seen up close when I started at the Buncombe County JAM program in 2014,” Davis says. “She taught guitar and even though I only learned banjo, I remember spending a lot of time with her and the other teachers before lessons with the other kids.” The Fine Tuned project reunited the two. “She definitely has made me want to be a musician even more, seeing how happy she is when performing,” Davis says of Fridley. “She has an amazing tempo and her voice sounds like no other.”

Kelley Breiding

Davis plans to further her music career with college and touring. “When I am older, I want to teach future generations to keep bluegrass and old-time music alive,” she says. “I have always wanted to open my own Appalachian music school in Madison County to teach students the Madison County style of playing old time/bluegrass music. Old time/bluegrass music is such a unique and complex genre, and I hope the generations in the future learn to play and perform until everyone in the world is a bluegrass lover.”

For Johnson, the importance of an album like Fine Tuned is its potential to inform as well as entertain. “Mass media and many innocent people who aren’t part of the culture here think about this place in terms of log cabins, family feuds, banjos (rightly so, in some cases) and any other number of worn-out tropes and stereotypes, including Appalachia as monolithically white,” he says. “Fine Tuned: Volume One is a sampling of what traditional music in WNC sounds like today.” And, he adds: “It’s important for people to know that traditional music in WNC isn’t any one thing; it’s a multitudinous amalgamation of centuries’ worth of living, loving, dying and singing.”

To learn more about the project, upcoming events and plans for Fine Tuned: Volume Two, to donate to future projects or to purchase the album as vinyl LP or CD, visit FineTunedNC.com.

Doc Watson at 100

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On March 3, 2023, the late Doc Watson would have turned 100 years young. A dazzling genius on the acoustic guitar, Watson remains an American musical institution and pillar of North Carolina culture and heritage.

“The first thing that comes to mind [about Doc Watson] is his innate soulfulness that reached out and touched people — you knew you were hearing a master,” said David Holt.

An iconic musician and storyteller in his own right, Holt befriended Watson many decades ago, ultimately performing alongside the six-string maestro from 1998 until Watson’s passing in 2012.

“Doc was in touch with his emotions and could put those feelings into his music,” Holt said. “Like any great singer, he imagined the story of the words.”

Born in Deep Gap (Watauga County) in 1923, Watson was raised in a small house in the rural countryside, the sixth of nine children. As a toddler, Watson lost his sight due to an eye infection.

“You have to remember he grew up blind and poor — it is amazing what he accomplished,” Holt said. “Doc was one of America’s great musicians. For musicality, soulfulness, and instrumental technique, I would put him at the top of the list with other virtuosos.”

Aside from the vast accomplishments Watson achieved throughout his long and bountiful career, perhaps none was more meaningful than his creation of MerleFest in 1988. The gathering is dedicated to Watson’s son, Merle, who tragically passed away in an untimely accident.

The renowned annual gathering takes place on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro (Wilkes County). Each spring, MerleFest plays host to an array of marquee bluegrass, Americana, folk and country acts in front an audience of tens of thousands — and all with the memory of Doc at the heart of the event.

“Doc will be a touchstone for future generations. They’re responding to that deep soul that he delivered so naturally and powerfully,” Holt said. “There’s so much to appreciate and learn from Doc Watson. He had it all — technique, taste, tone, and touch.”

A four-time Grammy Award winner, Holt took home the 2002 honor for “Best Traditional Folk Album” for his collaboration with Watson on the record “Legacy.” Watson himself garnered eight Grammys, including the “Lifetime Achievement Award” in 2004.

“[Doc] spent a great deal of time thinking about the words and building a story around them,” Holt said. “Then, he would add music to complement the message of the song with his instrument and voice — it was always tasteful.”

Those sentiments about Watson are also shared by another guitar legend, Bryan Sutton. Hailing from Asheville and greater Buncombe County, Sutton is one of the most intricately talented players of the modern era.

A 10-time International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) “Guitar Player of the Year,” Sutton also took home the Grammy for “Best Country Instrumental Performance” for “Whiskey Before Breakfast” with Watson in 2007.

“Doc was this perfect blend of clear articulation and discipline, but also a very casual kind of front porch fun and ease, ultimately,” Sutton said. “And anytime I was around him, he was always extremely generous with his time, with his words to me, and always treated me like a professional — he was just a real guy, he had it all.”

While still in high school, Holt first heard Watson in 1964 on his debut album, “Doc Watson,” which was released that same year. In 1971, the two finally crossed paths at the Lavonia Bluegrass Festival in Georgia.

“His music was so authentic, heartfelt, and real,” Holt said. “I liked the way he took old traditional tunes and made them sound modern and universal — he bent traditional songs, but he never broke them.”

Touring and performing coast-to-coast with Watson, Holt got to see first-hand the legend and lore of the late great guitar hero.

“We played a festival in Golden Gate Park [in San Francisco, California] for 500,000 people — the audience stretched as far as I could see,” Holt recalled. “And yet, the two of us were able to create a rhythm that brought people in, and with an intimacy that held them.”

For Holt and Sutton, and countless other guitar players and music lovers, the life and legacy of Doc Watson will carry on far into the 21st Century and beyond — his music as timeless, influential, poignant, nurturing, and vital today as ever before.

“If you’re a singer-songwriter, you can get a lot from Doc Watson. If you’re a flat-picker, you can get a lot from Doc Watson,” Sutton said. “His legacy, much like with [the ‘Father of Bluegrass’] Bill Monroe, is how you can be your own artist, and how you can kind of stay true to the traditions that inform you and define you stylistically, but also be your own sound as you interpret a lot of other things, as well.”

Enjoy more of our Down the Road – Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Guide here.

The Legacy Lives On: A Tribute to Loyal Jones (1928-2023)

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by Dr. Carol Boggess, Professor Emerita, Mars Hill University

(Pictured above, left to right: Betty Smith, Carol Boggess, and Loyal Jones at the 2019 Lunsford Festival. Photo courtesy of Marc Mullinax.)

“Who really knows Appalachia? If a monument should be erected in honor of anyone who perfectly and selflessly embodies the complex spirit of the southern mountains let it be for Loyal Jones.” *

If you have heard him speak, or read his books, if you have enjoyed his wit and his songs, you will greatly miss Loyal Jones, who passed away on October 7. He was a special man–a mountain man: friendly, generous, humorous, wise, hardworking and very smart. I first met him in the late 1980s, when I came to Mars Hill to teach and he had published his biography of Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Years later when he was working in the Appalachian Center at Berea College and I was doing research in Kentucky, we became friends.

In 2019, he moved from Kentucky back home to Western North Carolina. To be precise, he came to Highland Farms in Black Mountain and lived down the hall from another friend of MHU, ballad-singer, musician, and author Betty Smith. What an opportunity to have two musical legends so close! On October 5, 2019, we brought Betty and Loyal to our campus for the Lunsford Festival. The festival is always more than just a fun event where people enjoy music and good company. Every fall, it provides an opportunity for our community to celebrate our valued musical traditions.

On that particular Saturday, there was a moment at the end of the ballad swap when I was thinking that our guests needed to go back to Black Mountain – surely they were tired. But so many people wanted to talk with them that we could not get on the road. Then I turned to see a shy young man standing near Loyal, waiting quietly to meet the master. Even though I did not hear what they said, the moment was etched in my memory.

This past week when thinking of Loyal, I mentioned his passing to a former student and forever friend, Brandon Johnson. He has been involved with the festival and with mountain music since his early years at Mars Hill. He is now program manager for the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area in Asheville. The following is his response to the legacy of Loyal Jones.

MHU Alum Brandon Johnson performing at the 2019 Lunsford Festival. Brandon Johnson offers thanks to Loyal Jones:
While a student at Mars Hill University, I did an internship in the Southern Appalachian Archives working with Bascom Lamar Lunsford’s collections. First, Dr. Karen Paar had me read Minstrel of the Appalachians: The Story of Bascom Lamar Lunsford by Loyal Jones. That was when I was learning traditional music and starting to think about the roles it played in community life. Years later, I reread the biography and realized that it had established the foundation for my work and my life. What a gift to return to a moment that shaped who I am now and to understand the link between Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Loyal Jones, and myself.

In 2019, I was on stage at the Lunsford Festival at Mars Hill University playing the music I had discovered in that same place years before, when I looked up and saw Betty Smith and Loyal Jones sitting on a bench in the front row of the crowd. That festival is part of my alma mater, part of Lunsford’s legacy, and part of who I am as a person and a musician. Betty Smith and Loyal right there – two people who had impacted my life in so many ways. All of a sudden, they were watching me contribute my small portion to the living, breathing, music of Appalachia, this place – my place. I will always remember that moment as the truest of honors.

* So writes John Stephenson, (former president of Berea College) as he introduces Appalachian Values, a book of words from Loyal Jones and photos from Warren Brunner.

Sparking the Fire: BRNHA Celebrates 20th Anniversary

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It was over two decades ago when Becky Anderson was walking across the bustling Pack Square in downtown Asheville, only to be approached by the late Gary Everhardt, who, at the time, was the superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“He stopped me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this new thing the National Park Service is starting, these National Heritage Areas. And I want you to get us one,’ and then he just walked off,” Anderson recalled with a chuckle.

Back then, Anderson was transitioning from her position as the director of economic development for the Asheville Chamber of Commerce to a new role as the founding director for Handmade in America, and also helping develop projects for The Creative Economy.

And what Anderson and several other key leaders went to work on was the creation and implementation of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (BRNHA), which celebrates 20 years in 2023. This new layer of federal designation for the 25 counties that comprise the North Carolina mountains and foothills was added to the already robust Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail.

The BRNHA nonprofit organization preserves, cultivates and promotes the natural and cultural heritage of 25 Western North Carolina counties to benefit current and future generations. With five main areas of focus – agriculture, Cherokee, craft, music and natural heritage – BRNHA is now one of the marquee heritage entities in all of Western North Carolina and greater Southern Appalachia.BRNHA began under the tutelage of AdvantageWest, an economic development organization serving Western NC. In those early years, BRNHA established a major focus on heritage tourism development and promotion for the 25-county region. In 2007, the organization became a fully functioning nonprofit and then started a partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway at its flagship visitor center in Asheville, providing information to travelers who wanted to explore the outdoors and cultural treasures of Western NC’s small towns and communities.
Another key entity involved in the BRNHA’s development was the North Carolina Arts Council. In the late 1990s into the early 2000s, the NCAC Director of Folklife was Wayne Martin, who was also the executive director of the NCAC from 2012 to 2021. Now the executive director of the North Carolina Arts Foundation, Martin was pivotal in the early days and the continued history of the BRNHA.

“In addition to the ‘Craft Trails,’ we decided to also create the ‘Music Trails’ and ‘Cherokee Trails,’” Martin said. “These trails are a way for people visiting the area to really dig deep and find their way around this incredible cultural place that is Western North Carolina.”

Martin noted that the underlying foundation of the success of the BRNHA and its cultural trails was the sincere connection between the nonprofit organization and the local communities it serves. Input as to what was available, what was needed, and what could potentially be offered, was sought after at every turn in the ongoing process and continued growth of the BRNHA.
“The main thing was the local leadership, that desire among the people in this region to see attention brought to these cultural assets,” Martin said. “We looked at what the communities had already chosen, and there are so many venues of cultural importance — they wanted to make sure these places were preserved and perpetuated, with the [Blue Ridge National] Heritage Area a good vehicle to make that happen.”

Aside from the emphasis on the natural environment, the arts and culture of Western North Carolina, another important corner of the BRNHA is its numerous programs aimed at informing and educating the younger generations. Especially through its grants to communities program, BRNHA has supported efforts like Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) which have been enormously successful in keeping mountain music alive in the 21st Century.

“And then, we also have the ‘Fine Tuned’ program, where we’re providing seasoned mentors to emerging musicians, teaming them up and recording the work they’ve created together — we’re mentoring, we’re teaching, we’re capturing their hard work,” Anderson said.

With 20 years now in the rearview mirror, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area stands tall and proud, and always with new projects on the horizon — one foot in tradition and a storied past, the other in the promise and progress of tomorrow.

“The Museum of the Cherokee Indian was an early supporter of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area,” stated its Executive Director Shana Bushyhead Condill. “BRNHA’s latest cultural initiative, the Blue Ridge Craft Trails, gives us a new opportunity to amplify the Cherokee craft story in an authentic and innovative way through media coverage, networking, and training. Through intentional partnerships like ours with BRNHA, we center Cherokee voices, showcase our community of artists who are perpetuating and disrupting craft traditions, and share them with a growing audience.”

“The [Blue Ridge National] Heritage Area reminds us of our legacy, our heritage, and our role as citizens in this region,” Anderson said. “[In the last 20 years], we’ve gained respect not only in our region and our state, but nationally — [the BRNHA] got to the heart of who we are, and we keep it authentic.”

Enjoy more of our Down the Road – Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Guide here.

Fine Tuned: In Their Own Words

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By Kelley Breiding

I initially received a phone call from the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, who explained the Fine Tuned project was pairing artists for a recording project, and asked if I would be interested in working with The Allen Boys and DaShawn Hickman (Surry County).

Having very little idea what Sacred Steel music was, and having an equally limited amount of understanding of what The Allen Boys do, I was all in.

It sounded like a musical adventure, and I was ready to try something new. The idea that we were both steeped in traditions from the same area, but didn’t really overlap before, was interesting, and I thought it could yield some interesting stuff.

My first move was to go to the church where they grew up playing and became who they are as musicians. I went down on a Sunday to the House of God Church (Mount Airy) and it was awesome from start to finish.

The band played music the entire time, whether someone was singing or just speaking, and the congregation was full of singers and people filled with joy who didn’t stay still or seated. It was really a great way to get to know the band better and get ready for the collaboration.

After that, we started meeting in the church to work on the music for the project. We had fun straight away. Our personalities were a great fit for enjoying the process together and we made fast friends. They were helpful to me about how to approach the music in their way, and I was also able to share my perspective with them and we all got a lot out of each other’s knowledge base.

In the end, we both played roots based, traditional music and could get things together easily, even though our genres didn’t really seem as similar as they ended up proving to be. We ended up with some great music for the recording session.

One was an original song, “Lord, I Need Your Help,” written by bassist Mitchell Fonville, which we took through many versions and tried a lot of ideas to get to the product. The song is a very emotional and solemn one, which required DaShawn Hickman and myself to really get connected into our feelings to make it what it needed to become.

In contrast, the “Walkin’ in Jerusalem” was a joy-filled number where I played banjo and sang on my own. The fun part of that one was that they had a different approach than I was used to in the bluegrass gospel versions I had heard, and we mashed that all together into something that represents of all of us.

We were collaborators and we learned about multiple things in this experience from each other. I think I got to explore different parts of my abilities and apply them in new ways through the collaboration.

As an artist, trying new things with other artists is really an amazing opportunity — and can be a scary one to take — but I am happy to say it has made me better as a performer and more confident about trying new things again in the future.

The project hasn’t really ended because we now have shows together and may find ourselves working more in the future. We certainly have come out of it as friends and ongoing collaborators. I would say to someone considering the Fine Tuned project to go for it — you will learn things about music and yourself that are invaluable.

Multi-instrumentalist and singer Kelley Breiding has developed a deep relationship and understanding with the old-time music of northwestern North Carolina and the communities that surround those musical traditions. Kelley is particularly noted for her clawhammer banjo playing in the famed Surry County Round Peak style and her strong singing, and she showcases these skills in several regional bands.

Community Connector: Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center

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The better part of a century ago, a building was constructed by the federal government on a desolate stretch of road outside of Franklin. And what was initially a facility for the Civilian Conservation Corp is now regarded as a cultural crossroads for Macon County, in the far western corner of North Carolina.

“This is a commercial enterprise run by the local community,” said Laura Brooks, executive director of Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center. “We want this place to be a hub for artists in the community, for live music, and for all kinds of programming that’s offered.”

“It’s a community center, cultural center, and heritage center all in one location,” added Barry Clinton, board chair/treasurer for Cowee School. “When we started, we wanted to attract artisans that represent the culture and history of this region, and we’ve been able to evolve into where we are today.”

Once the CCC vacated the property and the structure, known as the Cowee School, it became the education epicenter for the rural mountain communities of Macon County in 1943. By the early 2000s, the school was consolidated and closed, only to be preserved and repurposed as the Arts & Heritage Center in 2012.

“Between the pottery school, Summer Concert Series, artisan gallery, Franklin Area Folk Festival, Cowee Christmas, and other offerings, we’re continuing the mission we set out to do — become a destination for all types of activities,” Clinton said.

Aside from the several avenues of creative pursuits mentioned, the Cowee School is also home to a shared use kitchen, farmers’ market, community garden, event space, venue for mountain heritage and Cherokee preservation, and recreational/fitness facilities for local residents and visitors alike.

“It’s a little isolated out here, so there’s so much that we provide to this area of the county that nobody else does,” Brooks noted. “There are no public parks up this way, so we’re the only outdoor space for a lot of people. And we hold onto that rich history of this area, too — there’s nowhere else like it.”

“And we’ve had phenomenal support, both within the county and regionally,” Clinton added. “People from all over Southern Appalachia and the Southeast come here for the classes, exhibits, and our Summer Concert Series.”

Showcasing some of the finest Americana, bluegrass and indie-folk acts on the scene today, the 2023 Summer Concert Series will host Mountain Heart, Slocan Ramblers, Chatham Rabbits, The BorderCollies, and Unspoken Tradition, and the Blue Ridge Music Trails’ Fine Tuned Concert Series.

“We’ve been able to make a name for ourselves as a viable venue for quality live music,” Clinton said. “[Haywood County bluegrass stars] Balsam Range was our first act in 2012. From there, we’ve brought in national and international touring groups, and always sprinkling in up-and-coming performers.”

Currently celebrating over a decade of successful programming and hard-forged bonds within the communities it serves, the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center continues to push ahead in its original mission of bringing people together in the name of art, history, culture, and fellowship.

“Seeing this place come alive with people and activities makes it all worth it,” Brooks said. “It’s a lot of work, and we’re always on a small budget with a lot of volunteer hours. And to see people get excited about what we’ve put all that time into? It’s really rewarding.”

Enjoy more of our Down the Road – Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Guide here.

Beacon Manufacturing and a Swannanoa Fiddling Phenom

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by Anne Chesky

In the midst of the Great Depression, when many Appalachians were losing their hard-won factory jobs and heading back to the farm, Marcus Lafayette Martin moved his family east to Swannanoa, about 12 miles outside of Asheville, where he, and later his sons, were able to find work in one of the nation’s largest blanket mills, Beacon Manufacturing. Back in Macon County, North Carolina, Martin had farmed and logged but had little experience in industry. So why was he able to find steady work when so many others were losing their jobs?

According to local legend, Beacon’s owner, Charles D. Owen, was fervently against unions, had even moved his entire company brick by brick south from Massachusetts to avoid them, and he figured the best way to stop his workers from trying unionize was to make sure they were happy. In a time before television, when few workers could afford to own a radio or go to the movies, live music and sporting events were the major forms of entertainment. So when Owen heard Martin’s masterful fiddling, he offered him a job on the spot and his family a place to live in the mill village.

Hiring based on musical talent or other skills unrelated to job performance was not uncommon in the early part of the 20th century. In fact, two of Martin’s sons found steady work at Beacon in part because of their talent on the baseball field. In many parts of the United States, industries hired musicians to form internal musical groups in hopes of promoting enthusiasm and encouraging loyalty among workers.

Even earlier, at the beginning of the 19th century, Virginians who were looking to buy enslaved people or acquire free servants often specified in advertisements that they wanted a musician because enslaved people and indentured servants composed most of the bands that played local dances.

By the mid-1800s, a fiddler could be found in almost every settlement in Southern Appalachia, including Cherokee communities. As the grandson of musically-inclined Cherokee Indian Chief John Martin (also known as Tsu-ni-tlu-tlu) and a Scots-Irish woman, Martin became inextricably tied to the origins and traditions of Western North Carolina music. The contributions he and his family made to the development of these traditions, however, might never have been known if not for an industry looking to appease its workers and keep them from unionizing.

Around the time Martin was born (1881) in the community of Aquone in Macon County, fiddles and other instruments began to be more accessible to the general public through mail-order catalogs. Despite this mass production, many fiddlers, like those in the Martin family, continued to hand-make their own instruments.

Martin’s father, Nathaniel “Rowan” Martin, taught him most of his repertoire and technique, and though Rowan himself never found acclaim as a musician, Martin remembered years after his father’s death that he “could play the sweetest you ever heard.”

Martin began playing publicly in his youth, often fiddling tunes unaccompanied at square dances around Macon and Cherokee counties. Years later, he married Callie Holloway, a “good five-string banjo picker” herself, and they had six children — five boys and a girl. In the 1920s, Martin separated from Callie and moved with his boys — Wade, Fred, Quentin, Wayne, and Edsel — from rural North Carolina to a quickly developing Swannanoa.

Though string bands had been part of the Swannanoa community for at least half a century before Marcus Martin came to town, it was the mill village that created a boom in the quality and quantity of music events in the town. Musicians, rather than being miles apart from each on their farms, were now living in close quarters with hundreds of non-musicians who looked to them for entertainment. It was in the mill town of Swannanoa that Martin became well known as a musician. And so, in Swannanoa and in many mill towns across the Appalachian South, the development of urban industrial centers encouraged the development and simultaneous preservation of traditional music that had most often been associated with rural areas.

A few years after the Martins made their move to Swannanoa, Bascom Lamar Lunsford began organizing the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival in Asheville. Martin became a favorite of Lunsford’s and opened the festival for many years with the traditional tune “Grey Eagle.” He continued to travel and play with Lunsford throughout his life, performing as far away as Renfro Valley, Kentucky, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

In the mid-1940s, recordings of many of Martin’s songs were made on old acetate discs and placed in the Library of Congress. Still Martin claimed he “didn’t know a thing about music.” In reality, he knew dozens of songs by heart and even won the title of “Champion Fiddler” at the 1949 North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.

Though his music career was taking off, Martin still spent most of his time working as a watchman at the Beacon mill. In his spare time, he made fiddles to sell. He had learned to carve from his father, who “was gifted with wood,” according to Martin’s son Wade, but who had only used his skills for practical purposes, fashioning plow handles and other farming tools. Carving as an art form came later for the Martin men, when their factory jobs provided them with cash and free time.

Martin made fiddles and mountain dulcimers, always spending extra time to carve a scroll at the end of each instrument. And though he had stopped playing by the early 1960s, his sons had already learned much from their father. They all played music and carved, but Edsel was the most accomplished. Using only his pocket knife, he shaped likenesses of mountain people, whittled hound dogs, and carved native western North Carolina birds, some of which are now on display in the Smithsonian. The dulcimers Edsel made featured scrolls shaped into human faces, dog heads, and flowers. Musician and friend Billy Edd Wheeler remembered Edsel’s playing fondly: “He grew up with these songs, heard them played by his daddy as often as he heard the birds sing, and as naturally.”

Beacon Manufacturing began downsizing in the late 20th century because of increased automation and competition. The mill permanently closed in 2002 and an arsonist burnt the vacant building to the ground in 2003. But Marcus Martin’s legacy continued.

Today, old-time fiddlers still try to match his style by listening to his recordings. Many of his old-time tunes have been adapted by modern fiddlers, including some of his most unusual songs such as “Lady Hamilton” and “Jenny Run Away in the Mud in the Night.”

Owen, Beacon’s owner, may have originally viewed Marcus Martin as a tool that could save him time and money by helping keep the mill’s workers content, but by hiring Martin and other musicians, Owen also brought the music of rural Western North Carolina to a broader audience, many of whom had moved south from Massachusetts with Beacon in the 1920s. Factory jobs not only brought together people who would hear and remember the tunes but also allowed the tradition bearers free time to develop and promote their art. By doing so, these urban areas helped preserve rural traditions of transplanted workers even as these workers abandoned their rural lifestyle.

In 2023, the land that once held the booming industry that brought the Martin family to Swannanoa has yet to be redeveloped, but Martin and his magic hands are still remembered. It is said that he could “fiddle a possum out of a tree, fiddle all the bugs off a sweet potato vine, and fiddle the heart right out of your throat.”

Anne Chesky is the Executive Director of the Asheville Museum of History.

Bobby Hicks Says He’d Do It All Over Again

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Atop a small mountain in a holler, in the depths of rural Madison County, is an unassuming house. A winding dirt driveway leads to the front door. Entering the mud room, there are a handful of Grammy awards glistening on a shelf in the afternoon sunshine.

“One of my Grammys is on the desk of the [Madison County] sheriff,” 89-year-old Bobby Hicks chuckled in his living-room recliner. “He’s always treated me well, and is only a phone call away.”

Aside from the Grammys garnered throughout his incendiary career as a renowned bluegrass and country music fiddler, Hicks’ stairwell is lined with International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and Country Music Association (CMA) honors. There are also gold and platinum record plaques acquired during his tenure with the Bluegrass Album Band, and with Ricky Skaggs.

“If I was a young man, I’d do it all over again,” Hicks said about his whirlwind life and astounding career.

Born in Newtown (Catawba County) in 1933, Hicks was raised in a musical family. His mother played banjo. One brother took on mandolin, while two others played guitar. The four brothers eventually formed a band, with Hicks picking up fiddle to round-out the group.

“When I was nine years old, my dad brought a three-quarter sized fiddle home one night. He’d bought it from somebody for $12.50,” Hicks noted of his first acquired instrument. “So, I started messing with it, trying to learn how to play it. There were a lot of people who wanted to play in town, and I’d join in the jam with them.”

By the early 1950s, Hicks had made a name for himself around the Piedmont area of North Carolina. Then, in 1954, Hicks was hired as the bass player for Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys. Known as the “Father of Bluegrass,” Monroe was in need of a bassist while touring the Greensboro region. Hicks got the gig and became a full-time member, soon switching back to fiddle for Monroe.

“I was 21 when I went to work for [Bill Monroe]. He treated me like a son, and he always looked after me,” Hicks said. “I lived and breathed the fiddle. And I learned a lot after I went to Nashville [with Monroe] — there were so many good fiddle players there.”

Hicks played for Monroe from 1954 to 1956 before entering the military. Two years later, in 1958, Hicks was honorably discharged and joined back up with Monroe until 1960. From there, Hicks worked with country legend Porter Wagoner. After that, there were a handful of stints playing around the Midwest and Montana.

“Then, I left Montana and went to Las Vegas. I walked into the Golden Nugget [casino] looking for a job,” Hicks said. “I had an empty gas tank in my car and $2 in my pocket — that was all the money I had. Walking into the Golden Nugget, [country star] Judy Lynn was in there, and she was looking for me [to play her Vegas residency].”

Lynn hired Hicks right on the spot. With another gig in his hands, Hicks and his trusty fiddle took on Las Vegas from 1963 through the early 1970s. By 1981, Skaggs asked Hicks to join his band, an invitation that led to an incredible 22-year run in the band, and all while Skaggs became a country music icon throughout the 1980s and beyond.

It was also during this time with Skaggs where Hicks was invited to be part of the immortal Bluegrass Album Band. Created as a murderers’ row of bluegrass masters, the initial group consisted of Hicks, guitarist Tony Rice, banjoist J.D. Crowe, mandolinist Doyle Lawson, and bassist Todd Phillips.

Nowadays, Hicks doesn’t venture too far from his mountaintop home. But, he will — like clockwork for the better part of the last 15 years — find himself down in nearby Marshall, a small county seat mountain town, to perform during the monthly bluegrass jam at Zuma Coffee.

“We’ve had people come to jam from all over the country,” Hicks said. “There’s even been folks from Japan, England, Italy, all over Europe — it’s a pretty special thing.”

Relaxing back into his recliner, with a slight glance over at all those glistening trophies and recognitions adorning his humble abode, Hicks can’t help but be grateful for the life he’s lived, and continues to wander — fiddle in-hand, always ready at the drop of a hat to bust out his beloved instrument for an impromptu jam.

“All I feel really good about is creating a style [of fiddle playing] that everybody likes,” Hicks said in a modest tone. “I just try to be nice to people and treat them like I would expect them to treat me. And I enjoy teaching the younger people that want to learn to play what I do.”

Enjoy more of our Down the Road – Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Guide here.

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