Sights & SoundsEmily Spencer and Kilby Spencer
The “clawhammer” banjo style is an essential aspect of “old time,” an ensemble-based, hard-driving music form that has inspired dancers across Southern Appalachia for generations. Unlike the more popularized bluegrass …
Sights & SoundsPhyllis Gaskins and Blue O’Connell
Phyllis Gaskins of Elkton, Virginia, is a master of the Galax dulcimer, an instrument distinguished from the regular mountain dulcimer in numerous ways, with four equidistant strings of the same …
Sights & SoundsSteve Kilby and Leah Hall
The guitar was primarily used as a rhythm instrument in the United States from the 1800s through the 1930s. As more and more players began to play lead breaks on …
Sights & SoundsJason Rutledge and Melanie Carrier and Adam B. Greene
Born to a sharecropper’s daughter on tobacco row in Southside Virginia, Jason Rutledge was educated in the traditional skills of Suffolk horse drawn logging by his grandfather, a man skilled …
Sights & SoundsAli Reza Analouei and Behnaz Bibizadeh
Dr. Ali Reza Analouei, born in Esfahan, Iran, has made his life’s work to apply the mystical traditions of Sufism and Irfan to the music he plays and teaches. He …
Sights & SoundsOlin Bare and Bruce Watts
There is a long history of traditional hunting in Rockbridge County and throughout Virginia. Olin Bare’s family traditions including hunting methods have been faithfully handed down ever since his family …
Sights & SoundsJohn Buck and James R. Lumpkins Jr.
The importation and manufacturing of firearms have been part of Virginia’s history since European settlement. The first documented firearms brought to Virginia in 1607 were muskets equipped with matchlocks, snaphances, …
Sights & SoundsRemembering Houston Caldwell
It is with tremendous sadness that we report the passing of Houston Caldwell, eighteen, of Galax, Virginia. Houston was gifted and promising young banjo player, and a dear friend. I …
Sights & SoundsBreaking Up Christmas
When Christmas is over, the fun is just getting started for many in Southern Appalachia. The tradition of “Breaking Up Christmas” is a week-long series of gatherings, where people get …
Sights & SoundsAcoustic Youth
Many of the musicians who perform at fiddler’s conventions and music festivals throughout southern Appalachia are, in fact, young kids. Late in the night, long past their bedtimes, children and …
Sights & SoundsFlory Jagoda
“Don’t open your mouth. Just sit and play. Keep on playing.” Flory Jagoda (photo right) sings songs she learned from her nona (grandmother) as a child in pre-WWII Sarajevo – …
Sights & SoundsThe Old Jimmy Sutton
A masterful songster recorded by two folklorists, fifty years apart. When the late folklorist Alan Lomax set out on his now infamous “Southern Journey” in 1959, he stopped in Chilhowie, …
