Folklife Apprenticeship Musicians Featured in New Documentary

We have a very musical West Virginia Morning for you. We’ll hear from singers in Oregon, a pop musician from the Northern Panhandle, and fiddlers in Clay County who have been handing down old-time music for a long time.

First up, get your popcorn ready — this Saturday evening, you can watch our new documentary, In Tune, about the old-time music community in West Virginia.

As Roxy Todd reports, one of the musicians in the film is teaching traditional music to the next generation through the West Virginia Humanities Council’s Folklife Apprenticeship program.

Also on today’s show, musician and artist Daniel Johnston was known for eccentric and sometimes harrowing pop songs colored by childlike innocence and romantic longing.  Johnson died of natural causes this week at the age of 58. Dave Mistich reports on his highly revered — and sometimes troubled — life and work.

And the band Joseph’s distinctive vocal sound can be delicate and quiet, or rousing and uplifting. Jim Lange, host of Eclectopia, spoke with two of the three sisters from Portland who are at the core of the band. We hear some of that conversation.

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Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University. Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from CAMC and Marshall Health.