Folk Music

Arts & Culture WVPB Staff, Jan. 10, 2025

Making A Living From Folk Music And Our Song Of The Week, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear from musicians in Appalachia trying to make a living, and Ed Snodderly has our Mountain Stage Song of the Week.

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Arts & Culture Bill Lynch +, Jan. 10, 2025

Folksingers And Hellbenders, Inside Appalachia

This week, a talented, young folk singer looks for the balance between making music and making a living. Also, after six generations, keeping the family farm going can be rough. We hear the story of the...

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Arts & Culture Connie Bailey Kitts, Nov. 15, 2024

West Virginia Folk Musician Fundraises For Western North Carolina With 2016 Flood Song

Out of disaster, sometimes comes a song. In 2016, torrential rains resulted in one of the deadliest floods in West Virginia, destroying homes in White Sulphur Springs. The event and its aftermath inspired musician Chris Haddox to write “O’ This River.”

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Arts & Culture Bill Lynch +, Jul. 24, 2023

Following Up With A Ukrainian Musician And Smoky Mountain Firefly Magic, Inside Appalachia

This week on Inside Appalachia, a Ukrainian musician reflects on what music means during wartime. And there’s a growing number of a certain kind of blood-sucking arachnid — and diseases that come with it. We also sit in on one of the natural wonders of the Great Smoky Mountains.

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Recent Stories

Arts & Culture Mason Adams, Jul. 13, 2022

Real-Life Outlaw Otto Wood Went Viral In The Thirties

In the early 1930s, the way for a story to go “viral” was by being sung about in a ballad. That’s what happened to Otto Wood, a real-life outlaw who grew up around Wilkesboro, North Carolina. He spent time with the Hatfields of southern West Virginia, became a famous moonshiner, and died in a shootout with police in 1930. Less than one year later, his story was told in the ballad “Otto Wood The Bandit,” recorded by Walker Kid and the Carolina Buddies.

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Arts & Culture Zack Harold, Jul. 13, 2022

Traditional Murder Ballads Reveal A Dark Truth About 'True Crime' Media

There are many murder ballads from Appalachia — and most of them are about men killing women. Folkways reporter Zack Harrold is a musician himself. In fact, you can hear him playing guitar and banjo on a song called “Little Sadie” that appeared in the May 20, 2022 episode of Inside Appalachia. “Little Sadie” is a ballad about a man killing his sweetheart — exactly the kind of song Zack sought to understand in his reporting about murder ballads. What can they tell us about history? And is “true crime” the modern-day equivalent?

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