Sights & SoundsDaniel Smith & Richard Maxham
Daniel Smith of Lynchburg is apprenticing Richard Maxham of Alexandria, a fifth-generation violinist, in violin making and repair.
NewsAnnouncing the 2022 Virginia Folklife Stage and Area at the Richmond Folk Festival
This year’s craft demonstration area at the Richmond Folk Festival will feature an Instrument Makers Workshop and more.
Sights & SoundsSkip Herman – Folklife Fieldnotes Episode 2
Skip Herman is a world-renowned instrument repairman from Frog Level Guitar Shop in Abingdon, Virginia. This podcast is produced in partnership with WMRA.
Sights & SoundsChris Testerman, Karlie Keepfer and Sophia Burnett
Instrument Making Chris Testerman has been around instrument makers since he attended Mount Rogers Combined School in Grayson County and played in the Albert Hash Memorial Band, led by Whitetop …
Sights & SoundsRemembering Gerald Anderson
I’m sure we join so many throughout Southwest Virginia and beyond in our sadness and shock to learn of the passing of Gerald Anderson. Gerald was a fine luthier, player, …
Sights & SoundsBrian Calhoun and Adam McNeil and Jake Hopping
Brian Calhoun grew up in Rockbridge County, an area rich with many fine players of bluegrass and old-time music as well as a wide variety of acoustic styles. Already a …
Sights & SoundsGreg Galbreath and Peter Keller
Just as old-time mountain music has risen in popularity across America and the world, so has the art of banjo making. Unlike the three-finger-picking style for bluegrass banjo popularized by …
Sights & SoundsOld Recordings Found
Digging around in our archive recently we came across a trove of Betamax and U-matic video tapes from the early 90s. We dusted of the old tape deck and had …
Sights & SoundsDale Wise and Lori Sallade
The accordion, a box-shaped instrument first patented in Vienna in 1829, was a folk instrument played largely by commoners. At the turn of the twentieth century, European emigrants took the …
Sights & SoundsApprenticeships Merge: Dale Wise restores Flory Jagoda’s accordion
Flory Jagoda, a master artist of the Sephardic ballad tradition, escaped from Bosnia in 1941. Her only possession was her Hohner Student III accordion. More than seventy years later, Dale …
Sights & SoundsWalter Messick and Chris Testerman
The hills of Grayson County, encompassing the small mountain communities around Mt. Rogers, are a veritable hotbed of luthiers—builders of fretted, stringed instruments. Some of America’s finest guitars, mandolins, fiddles, …
Sights & SoundsWayne Henderson and Jayne Henderson
Wayne Henderson was born, raised and still lives in tiny Rugby, Virginia in Grayson County. He built his first guitar using traced patterns and the wood from the bottom of …
