Appalachian History

Part 2 of 2 In Atlanta Gid Tanner was recommended and Tanner brought blind guitarist Riley Puckett with him to New York on March 7, 1924 to back-up his fiddle. Puckett became Columbia’s and Walker’s first country star, and picked his way through “Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” accompanied on fiddle by Tanner. [...]

Part 1 of 2 In 1984, the Tennessee General Assembly recognized the town of Bristol, with one foot in Tennessee and one in Virginia, as the “Birthplace of Country Music.” The Commonwealth of Virginia followed in 1995, with both the State Senate and the House of Delegates passing identical resolutions honoring Bristol. The Bristol Sessions [...]

There were only four kinds of country music. One is your gospel songs, your religious songs. The others were your jigs and reels, like we spoke of a while ago at fiddler’s conventions. Your third were your heart songs, sentimental songs that came from the heart, and the fourth, which has passed out to a [...]

Dan Dutton, whom she mentored, discusses her legacy in more depth today on the Dandylandmuse blog. From his post: Jean wrote this email to one of her folk music friends who wasn’t feeling well a while back, and posted it on the Mudcat traditional music discussion board. It is such an insightful and brave introspection: [...]

Rebecca Dart, a Vancouver comic book artist and animator, is turning heads this week with her fresh visualization of the old-time tune “On the Banks of the Ohio.” Click on each panel to see her wonderful linework enlarged. Says Wikipedia of this tune: “Banks of the Ohio is a 19th century murder ballad, written by [...]