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 & SoundsThe Paschall Brothers and Tidewater Gospel Quartets
A Virginia-based a cappella quartet earned the “gospel album of the year” award at the 2009 Independent Music Awards. The Paschall Brothers of Chesapeake sing four-part harmony in a style …
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, …
