How Folk Music Bridges Cultures This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, we visit some shared musical ground between China and Appalachia. Also, in this show, we hear about a report to help Ohio Valley communities address climate change and the coronavirus pandemic, and we bring you this week’s Mountain Stage Song of the Week brought to you by Wilco.

A new plan released for the Ohio River Basin promises to restore, protect and bring new funding to the 15-state region. The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant reports.

A new report from an economic research group said Ohio could gain more than 200,000 jobs through investment in clean energy and other efforts to address climate change. Alana Watson reports the report provided a framework on how Ohio Valley communities can address climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Folk music, which essentially means music by the people, helps tell stories about our very human existence. It links us to our ancestors and to other cultures. As we’ll hear on this weekend’s episode of Inside Appalachia, sometimes folk music played on opposite sides of the globe can even have surprising sounds in common.

We learn about a pretty amazing musical collaboration between two women Abigail Washburn and Wu Fei. They combined the folk music of Appalachia and China. They told their story to Lizzie Peabody, host of the Smithsonian Institution’s podcast called Sidedoor.

Wilco joined Mountain Stage in February of 2016 with material from their Star Wars album released the year before. It also featured some classics from throughout their prolific and lauded career. The acoustic set closed out with the band’s inspired take on David Bowie’s “Space Oddity,” which is our Song of the Week.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

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.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Glynis Board, Caitlin Tan, Jessica Lilly, Liz McCormick, Dave Mistich, Brittany Patterson, Eric Douglas, Corey Knollinger, Emily Allen, and Roxy Todd.

Andrea Billups is our news director. Glynis Board is our host and producer.

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