Across the Blue Ridge
Arts & Culture Podcasts
Across the Blue Ridge focuses on the southern Blue Ridge area known through generations and still today as a hotbed of old-time, bluegrass, blues, and country music. And the program reaches far beyond, exploring southern music as the music most people around the world understand as distinctively American. Across the Blue Ridge is smart, irreverent, fun, serious, and entertaining all at once. How could it not be? Its host, Paul Brown, is a well-known former NPR journalist and radio producer who also happens to be a prize-winning banjo picker, fiddle player singer and storyteller. The show is filled with those “a-ha” moments for which public radio is known – moments that help listeners make new connections regarding history, art, music, politics, and the past, present, and future.
Location:
United States
Description:
Across the Blue Ridge focuses on the southern Blue Ridge area known through generations and still today as a hotbed of old-time, bluegrass, blues, and country music. And the program reaches far beyond, exploring southern music as the music most people around the world understand as distinctively American. Across the Blue Ridge is smart, irreverent, fun, serious, and entertaining all at once. How could it not be? Its host, Paul Brown, is a well-known former NPR journalist and radio producer who also happens to be a prize-winning banjo picker, fiddle player singer and storyteller. The show is filled with those “a-ha” moments for which public radio is known – moments that help listeners make new connections regarding history, art, music, politics, and the past, present, and future.
Language:
English
Website:
http://www.wfdd.org/
Episodes
Across the Blue Ridge #84 - The Lonesome River Band: Music Through The Generations
8/4/2017
The Lonesome River Band, based in southwest Virginia, has been delighting audiences at bluegrass festivals and theater shows since the 1990s. We feature the band, including life stories of its members, on this edition of Across the Blue Ridge.
The Lonesome River Band, under the leadership of banjo picker Sammy Shelor of Meadows of Dan, Virginia, is celebrating 35 years in 2017. It’s been an impressive force on the bluegrass scene since the early 1980s. Band members combine their great...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #83- From Progressive Bluegrass Back to Bill Monroe, Mountain Music, and Blues
7/29/2017
Bill Monroe … the Foddrell Family of Patrick County, Virginia … Etta Baker … and Elizabeth Cotten are just some of the musicians featured on this week’s Across the Blue Ridge episode.
This week we take a fascinating trip … back in time! We start with some progressive bluegrass from fiddler Michael Cleveland and banjoist Alan Munde, and trace a path back to Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland, and African-inspired blues. Join Paul Brown for an...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #82- Tennessee Music, Bluegrass Singing, Banjo & Percussion
7/21/2017
Renowned blues singer Bessie Smith was born and raised in Chatanooga, Tennessee, where she busked on the street as a girl to help support herself and her siblings. She’s one of the artists featured this week, in a segment showcasing Tennessee musicians.
Our summer listening sessions continue this week with a selection of music from Tennessee, some soulful and satisfying bluegrass singing, and a banjo song that’s as much about percussion as melody. It’s hard to even scratch the surface of...
Duration:00:58:55
Across the Blue Ridge #81- Early Grand Ole Opry Stars, New Country, and Fiddler Earnest East
7/14/2017
Earnest East (far left) is one of the featured musicians on this Across the Blue Ridge episode. The award-wining Surry County, NC player (1916-2000) was widely known, with his band The Pine Ridge Boys (L-R Earnest East, Mac Snow, Scotty East, Gilmer Woodruff), for his skill as a square dance fiddler and for his skill in backing up singers.
It’s another fabulous summer listening program this week, perfect for time at home, a barbeque, vacations, or that long road trip. Hear early stars of...
Duration:00:58:55
Across the Blue Ridge #80- New Albums, Harmony Singing, & More
7/7/2017
Scenic Sunrise, Blue Ridge Mountains
This week we hear selections from a new recording by Bobby Hicks – one of the greatest fiddlers in the history of bluegrass – and Mark Kuykendall. Plus … bluesy gospel from the Harris Brothers of western North Carolina, and a focus on duet harmony singing. We’ll check out classics from the Carter Family, the Delmore Brothers, the Monroe Brothers and the Stanley Brothers. But that’s not all. Closer to the present day, we hear songs from Carol Elizabeth...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #79- Fourth of July, and some good-time listening
6/30/2017
A powerful and haunting rendition of “Washington’s March” performed by the late West Virginia fiddler Edden Hammons features on the Fourth of July segment in this Across the Blue Ridge episode.
This Fourth of July week show explores the confluence of American and British sounds of the American Revolution in the contemporary U.S. We have a segment treating us to several guises of a fiddle tune memorializing George Washington -- and African-American tunes and songs on fife and drum in the...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #78- Home & Hearth
6/23/2017
Payne Cotton Mill Girls, by Lewis Hine, 1909, Macon, Georgia. This week’s Across the Blue Ridge presents music of memory, loss and hope.
This week, as gardens come in, people start out on summer trips to home places and family, we hear a selection of songs reflecting the southern attachment to home and hearth, and the tensions between ranging far afield and staying put. We listen to songs of memory, and consider how “the good old days” were just that in some ways, but not necessarily in...
Duration:00:58:55
Across the Blue Ridge #77- Listening to the Classics of old time, bluegrass, blues & gospel
6/16/2017
Cousin Emmy (Cynthia May Carver) is one of the many entertainers we hear on this week’s Across the Blue Ridge listening session.
The first of this year’s Across the Blue Ridge summer listening sessions brings us a wonderful selection of old and new songs and tunes demonstrating the many cultural crossroads in American traditional and popular music. Wherever you are, you can enjoy old time mountain music from Kentucky’s Cousin Emmy; bluegrass from Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe; mountain...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #76- The New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters
6/9/2017
The New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters, a powerful and charming old time mountain string band with a rich history, are our featured performers on this episode of Across the Blue Ridge. L-R Josh Ellis, Eddie Bond, Dennis Hall, Bonnie Bond, Caroline Beverly.
This week we hear a fabulous Muddy Creek Music Hall stage performance from The New Ballard’s Branch Bogtrotters, one of the finest mountain string bands performing today. Hailing from southwest Virginia, this band is a dyed-in-the-wool...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #75- Music of southwestern Virginia and beyond
6/2/2017
Wade Ward (L) and Charlie Higgins were two of the most revered old time musicians from the southwest of Virginia in and around the town of Galax. We hear from them and others in a program focusing on Virginia traditional musicians.
This week, as the fiddlers’ convention season in the south really gets underway, we check out some songs and tunes old and new from the Virginia mountains. In the southwestern part of Virginia, Galax and surrounding communities have long been centers of old...
Duration:00:58:55
Across the Blue Ridge #74- A California-based documenter, and some great dance tunes
5/26/2017
Across the Blue Ridge host Paul Brown (L) and David Bragger jam at The Old Time Tiki Parlour, Bragger’s home and studio in Los Angeles. Bragger is a musician and documenter who is recording as many current roots musicians as he can.
The allure of traditional southern music has spread across the U.S. and around the world. Case in point: David Bragger is a Los Angeles audio-video producer and musician. He’s energetically documenting performers of music with southern American roots. In a...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #73- Mountains of Music Homecoming and country classics
5/19/2017
The Delmore Brothers of Alabama, early country music stars, have influenced generations of harmony singers and guitarists. We hear them on this episode of Across the Blue Ridge, plus a Doc Watson interpretation of a Delmore Brothers song.
The Mountains of Music Homecoming is just around the bend. The movable feast of roots music takes place in communities around southwestern Virginia June 9-17. This week we hear selections from performers at the first Homecoming in 2015. Jack Hinshelwood,...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #72- Lightnin’ Wells, one-man band
5/12/2017
Lightnin’ Wells regales the audience at Muddy Creek Music Hall with stories and songs from blues, old time, bluegrass, ragtime and jazz traditioins.
Mike “Lightnin’” Wells brings traditions together in his entertaining, informative and down-home one-man shows. His latest album, titled “O Lightnin’ Where Art Thou?”, displays his range as never before, as he plays and sings his way through songs from early country and bluegrass to blues, gospel and old time mountain music. Born in West...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #71 - A Festival Visit & Blues in Bluegrass
5/5/2017
A large crowd gathers at Merlefest to hear North Carolina native son James Taylor perform with dobro master Jerry Douglas, Shetland fiddler Aly Bain, and others during the Transatlantic Sessions.
This week we take a moment at Merlefest – not for the main stage acts, but with the community of jammers at festivals. Beyond that, we hear a fine selection of bluegrass and old time music with a blues tilt. Hear how the sounds of the blues infuse traditional songs, bluegrass classics, and even...
Duration:00:58:58
Across the Blue Ridge #71- New Recordings
4/28/2017
Del McCoury reaches back to the era of singles. He and his band are on a streak of releasing single songs, rather than waiting to complete entire albums. We hear the latest on this week’s Across the Blue Ridge.
New recordings, a preview of roots music from a public TV series, and some classic fiddle tunes and bluegrass cuts share the spotlight this week. We get a preview of music from Season 2 of David Holt’s State of Music, with songs and tunes from Dom Flemons, Rayna Gellert, The...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #69- Merlefest at 30
4/21/2017
Jerry Douglas (l.) and Aly Bain host the Transatlantic Sessions, in the U.S. for the first time this year. One stop will be Merlefest in North Carolina.
A festival that started small at Wilkes Community College in North Carolina has become one of the most enthusiastically supported roots music events in the U.S. Merlefest began in 1988 as an event to support the college and memorialize Eddy Merle Watson, the son of Doc Watson, who had died in a tractor accident on the family farm. As Doc...
Duration:00:58:54
Mac Benford and the old-time music boom
4/14/2017
Mac Benford, a member of the Highwoods Stringband in the 1970s, reminisces this week on how he came to old time music and wound up in a highly influential band.
One outcome of the folk music boom of the 1950s and ‘60s was an increased interest in the music from which much pop and folk had sprung: old-time and bluegrass. While The Weavers, The Kingston Trio and other groups developed a slick, commercialized sound for largely elite northern urban audiences of the time, The New Lost City...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #67 - Fiddler Buddy Pendleton, bluegrass classics, and some new recordings
4/7/2017
Buddy Pendleton of Patrick County, VA was one of the world’s great old time and bluegrass fiddle players. We offer some of his music and a remembrance of his life.
This week we profile Buddy Pendleton (1935-2017), a remarkably talented and fluid Patrick County, Virginia fiddle player whose repertoire spanned old time, bluegrass, folk, swing and jazz. Raised without benefit of a formal music teacher, he learned his first tunes from his uncle, Delmar Pendleton, and went on to become a...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #66- Blue Ridge Mountain Music, Piedmont Blues, and Swing
3/31/2017
Richard Emmett directs programming at The Blue Ridge Music Center in Virginia. The Quebe Sisters of Texas present swing fiddle tunes and triple-harmony singing at the Blue Ridge Music Center this season.
This week we hear some classic Blue Ridge mountain music, piedmont blues, and even some swing from the Quebe Sisters of Texas, who will perform at the Blue Ridge Music Center this season. Plus, what’s it like to present southern roots music in its home territory these days? Richard...
Duration:00:58:54
Across the Blue Ridge #65- Listening to the Classics
3/24/2017
Bill Monroe (second from right) and His Blue Grass Boys were early Grand Ole Opry stars who refashioned mountain music into the new genre called bluegrass.
This week we dig into the riches of early country music recordings to hear classics of old time mountain, white and African-American gospel, blues, classic country and bluegrass. Host Paul Brown guides us through the fascinating stories of artists, the unique sounds they produced, and the evolution of southern American traditional...
Duration:00:58:54