North Carolina Story Archives - Page 2 of 4 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Indie Rock Band Wednesday Carries The Torch For Mountain South

Wednesday made big waves with Rat Saw God when it came out in April. The music site Pitchfork gave it 8.8 out of 10 and named it Best New Music. Before Wednesday set out on a big European tour, Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams caught up with Karly Hartzman.

This conversation originally aired in the Nov. 19, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Asheville indie rock band Wednesday has had an eventful 2023 so far, releasing an acclaimed album and touring the U.S. and Europe.

Wednesday is based in Asheville, North Carolina, and consists of singer Karly Hartzman and her partner Jake Lenderman on guitar, Xandy Chelmis on lap steel, Margo Schultz on bass and Alan Miller playing drums.

Wednesday made big waves with Rat Saw God when it came out in April. The music site Pitchfork gave it 8.8 out of 10 and named it Best New Music.

Before Wednesday set out on a big European tour, Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams caught up with Karly Hartzman.

Wednesday’s 2023 album, *Rat Saw God*.

*Courtesy*

Adams: When I saw y’all play at Cat’s Cradle this summer, you talked about the importance of remaining in the South and staying where you’re at. So what compels you to stay in Western North Carolina there in Asheville?

Hartzman: The more places I see, the more I’m convinced that it’s the most beautiful place on the earth, and my favorite place on the earth. The more I travel, the more I’m affirmed in that. So I genuinely do just love the surroundings. I like the culture. I think Southern culture is one of the most intact. That’s one of the things about people being conservative, is they want to retain a lot of historical things. There’s a lot of negative stuff that goes along with being conservative, but there’s also a preservation of culture in a way. When it’s not a negative thing, it’s actually an interesting thing.

I went into an antique store the other day in Burnsville, [when] I was getting my license renewed, and there’s this super old guy. This lady was talking to him about all the stuff that she needed fixing around her house. And he was like, “Yeah, I can fix literally all of that.” Antique lamps and antique this-and-that. I just feel like a lot of that stuff is still intact here. There’s a lot of people who can’t stay here for fear of their life, obviously, and I totally understand them feeling like they need to escape whether it’s because they’re queer or they’re Black, with the police violence here. But if you’re not scared for your life, and you’re willing to fight for those who can’t, I think it’s a really good place with a lot of room to be productive.

There’s a ton of grassroots organization and people who are so passionate about change. And yeah, just the best food, too. I mean, they don’t got Bojangles anywhere else. So why would I live anywhere else?

Adams: There’s so much about the band that resonates with me, from its sound to the apparent musical influences. But the songwriting is just so incredible. It’s impressionistic and visual and rooted in place — but it also feels universal. How do your surroundings and experiences make your way into your music and your songs?

Hartzman: With any writing, I just think I’m impressed with people that are able to describe their own life in a way that captures how original everyone’s life is. It’s harder than you would think to find the things that make you and your life what it is. It’s a muscle, and obviously I’ve really worked it since I was a high schooler writing. I did poetry for a really long time and tried to find the little things that were interesting to me, and it tended to be outside of myself.

I find it really easy to get bored with my own thoughts in my own brain, so I look outside myself. That’s the one thing that I feel like a lot of people bring up about my writing, is that it’s kind of like a spectator. I try to look really closely about what’s going on that is specific to where I’m sitting, or where I’m at, at that moment. And once you build that muscle, it just comes to you. I find writing is the easiest part of the whole process because it’s happening around you all the time. If you live in a place that you’re inspired by — that’s why I am so attached to North Carolina and Asheville.

Adams: There’s so many songs I love on this record, but I wanted to ask you about “Bath County,” partly because I’m from Clifton Forge, which is adjacent. “Bath County” sprawls between eastern Tennessee and western Virginia, and it’s got all these memorable lines and visual images. Can you tell us just a little bit more about that song?

Hartzman: Jake’s mom is from Bath County, and she likes to go every, like once a year, maybe once every two years, to visit and go around her old stomping grounds. They’ll rent a house and we’ll go out there, and a lot of the visuals from that are from the drive up there. I saw a high school football game going on. It was the kind of game that happens around here, where you can just walk in and watch. There was a kid drinking a Fanta or maybe a Gatorade, I can’t remember, but it was fluorescent red and “Fanta” sounded better. So I went with that.

The other kind of section of that song about the guy who overdosed in his car was about something me and Jake saw on our way to Dollywood. We were going to go run around and try to have a good fun time, but on our way there, we stopped at a Chik-Fil-A, and the guy was surrounded by cops. I thought I was seeing a dead body for the first time, but luckily he sat up, but it took him a really long time. I was just struck by those two things. They had a similar tone, and that put them into the same song. That’s how a lot of my stuff is written.

Asheville band Wednesday.

*Credit: Zachary Chick, courtesy of Wednesday*

Adams: So you all have just come off this long national tour and you’re getting ready to head to Europe. How’s traveling and going on the road affect your perspective on home and where you live?

Hartzman: I think we’re still figuring that out. I think in the long run, success to us is really gonna mean that we’re able to spend more time at home. Right now, we’re not really able to do that. But whenever I talk to my bandmates, their goals in a lot of ways — except our drummer Allen loves being out on the road, he’s a total road dog — but everyone else is, ideally we would be able to do a month’s worth of touring instead of six months of touring or eight months, whatever we’ve been doing, and be able to sustain a life that’s comfortable at home for most of our time. Xandy just built a farm on his property, and it’s really hard for him to be away right now. Of course, I’m lucky because I have Jake out there and he’s my romantic partner, but everyone else was away from their loved ones. It’s really hard. So I think our dream would be to be able to spend the majority of our time in the place we love the most, which is Asheville. We love playing shows, but like yeah, it’s a pretty intense lifestyle.

Adams: Y’all have had such a big year this year with the album coming out and the sold-out tours. What wisdom have you taken away from these experiences you’re having?

Hartzman: Gosh, I mean, I learn something every day. I’m a huge introvert, there’s no way I would have the type of human connection that I have with my bandmates, the kind that comes from spending 24 hours with a group of people a day. It really shows me that human connection, even though it’s really difficult for me, is probably the most nourishing and important thing of life. Another thing I’ve learned is a lot of self-care stuff. I’m still figuring that out, because I don’t drink at home or really at all, but on tour it’s kind of necessary for me to get on stage sometimes.

So I’m trying to figure out my relationship with that, and I go to the sauna a lot when I can on tour. A lot of musicians end up being workout people and run. When they are on a tour bus, they’ll run during the day. I think that’s something I’ll have to start implementing. I never really understood why so many older musicians were such juice heads, but I understood, yeah you feel like sh*t on tour if you don’t do that, because there’s so much exposure to not the best food and a lot of drugs and alcohol. Which are fun, and I like to partake, but you’ve also got to balance that out with taking care of yourself.

Adams: What are y’all working on next?

Hartzman: Well, Jake’s album is going to be coming out. And then, our next album is written. We haven’t really practiced it as a band yet, but all of my songs are ready. It’s mostly just about finding time to practice them and then record them. It takes forever for that kind of stuff. But yeah, that’s something I really want to reaffirm to our audience, because the thing I hate most is when a band is received well, and then pivots in another direction or breaks under the pressure and just doesn’t release anymore good music.

I’ve been so intense about not letting that really affect how I write, any good or bad press. But I just feel, really, all the songs still feel the same to me as before. I feel like I’m still the same person writing. That’s what I’ve been trying to keep intact. But yeah, next one’s written, we’re just trying to figure out when to get it all down.

——

Karly Hartzman is the singer and guitar player from the Asheville band Wednesday. Their newest album is Rat Saw God. Adams interviewed its producer, Alex Farrer, in June. You can find that show here.

Justice Coal Company Moved Helicopter Despite Court Order, Creditor Claims

Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, said Bluestone Resources owes it $13 million and accused it of moving the helicopter last week from Roanoke, Virginia, to Burlington, North Carolina, to avoid paying.

A helicopter belonging to a coal company owned by Gov. Jim Justice has been moved from Virginia to North Carolina, a company that’s seeking the helicopter to settle a debt said in a court filing Tuesday.

Caroleng Investments, based in the British Virgin Islands, said Bluestone Resources owes it $13 million and accused the company of moving the helicopter last week from Roanoke, Virginia, to Burlington, North Carolina, to avoid paying.

Caroleng said it tracked the helicopter’s movement using the website flightaware.com.

In a filing Friday, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Bluestone sought a stay of an order for U.S. Marshals to seize the 2009 Bell helicopter. In the filing, Bluestone identified Caroleng as an offshore shell company controlled by Russian mining and metals oligarch Igor Zyuzin.

In its filing Tuesday, Caroleng attorneys disputed Bluestone’s description of Caroleng as a shell company. Rather, they said, it said was “a special purpose investment vehicle that was created to invest in mining interests in West Virginia.”

The filing said Bluestone has a long list of unpaid creditors and is familiar with shell companies.

“Public financial filings indicate that they have created dozens, if not hundreds, of such entities, likely to thwart collection efforts by creditors such as Caroleng,” the attorneys said of Bluestone.

The filing goes on to say that a helicopter is “not essential” for a mining company, and that private air travel is “generally considered a luxury.”

“Without a helicopter, surely Bluestone executives can travel using alternatives,” the filing said.

Caroleng’s attorneys challenged Bluestone’s assertion that other creditors would be paid first. Bluestone could not intervene on its creditors’ behalf in the event they had an interest in the helicopter, the attorneys said.

Caroleng said a title search for the helicopter produced a single security interest in the name of 1st Source Bank of South Bend, Indiana. Caroleng’s filing said the bank would have to make an appearance in the proceeding to protect its interest in the helicopter, but had not yet done so.

Caroleng also said the court should order Bluestone to deliver the helicopter to the U.S. Marshals and deny the stay, “subject to being held in contempt of this court.”

How Drop Of Sun Studios Turned Asheville Into An Indie Rock Hotspot

Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, is in the midst of an indie rock hot streak. Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams contacted Drop of Sun co-founder Alex Farrar to find out how he got into making music, and what’s the secret behind making buzzworthy music albums.

This conversation originally aired in the June 4, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, is in the midst of an indie rock hot streak.

Singer-songwriter Indigo De Souza released “All of This Will End” to critical acclaim in May, just one month after Wednesday’s “Rat Saw God” was named “Best New Music” at Pitchfork. Both of these albums, along with recent records by Angel Olsen, Archers of Loaf and Snail Mail were recorded and produced at Drop of Sun Studios.

Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams contacted Drop of Sun co-founder Alex Farrar to find out how he got into making music, and what’s the secret behind making buzzworthy music albums.

The transcript below has been lightly edited for clarity.

Adams: How did you get started and get into this work?

Farrar: My dad had this little 4-track. He would use it to demo out songs and jam around by himself. He picked up on my interest and showed me how to use it. We’d record covers of songs together, and stuff like that. It just kept growing and growing, and I eventually moved to Asheville in 2010 to attend the University of North Carolina at Asheville’s music technology program. I was recording friends’ bands and it just snowballed and snowballed until eventually it became the only thing that I do.

Adams: You mentioned the UNCA connection. What brought you to the mountains and, more importantly, what’s kept you there?

Farrar: Asheville is a special place. It’s one of the smallest cities that I’ve lived in, but it’s just incredibly fertile. There’s so many creative people here. The community is definitely what’s kept me here. I love the people that live here. It just seems like it’s always growing and getting more exciting, and it’s also a beautiful place to live.

Adams: How would you describe the scene in Asheville right now and some of the music coming out of the city?

Farrar: Yeah, there’s always been a very heavy experimental music scene here, which I love. There’s always something going on in that world. There’s a great heavy music scene here, and punk and metal and stuff, and I love that sort of shade of Asheville.

There’s also Moog and Make Noise synthesizers, who are huge synth companies that are based in town. That attracts a lot of creative minded musicians. There’s a lot of really amazing indie rock bands that are killing it like Wednesday, Indigo [De Souza] and MJ [Lenderman].

Adams: Drop of Sun Studios has been attached to a lot of these really prominent records coming out of Asheville lately. How did that get started?

Farrar: Drop of Sun was founded by my studio partner, Adam McDaniel, in 2014. It started in his basement, and it was this tiny room with low ceilings. It’s a space that shouldn’t have worked, but we made a lot of really great music in that tiny room, and it continued to grow. As time went on, we kept working on more and more projects. In 2021, we opened up our new location on Haywood Road. The Asheville music scene continues to evolve, and we’ve sort of grown with it. We’re super thankful to be part of the music community here.

Adams: Y’all are associated with some really cool recordings from 2021. Do you want to start with Angel Olsen?

Farrar: Yeah, sure. Angel’s EP was great. That was actually one of the very last things that happened at the initial Drop of Sun location, which is kind of cool. Adam got together with Angel with the idea of doing some covers of ‘80s songs. This is such a rad, fun interpretation of all those songs. I could just watch them picking apart those songs that you might hear while you’re grocery shopping, but then reinterpreting through the lens of whacked-out synths. Like, how do you make these songs feel kind of fresh and fun?

Adams: Then also that year, “Twin Plagues” came out from Wednesday, which is the album that put that band on my radar. Tell me about some of your memories working on that record.

Farrar: That record was so much fun to work on. They’re the most fun people to be in the room with, which is kind of the best thing. You spend a lot of long hours in a studio with a band. It’s a huge plus if they’re all funny and kind.

Adams: When I listen to that record, tell me some of what I’m hearing so far as the Alex Farrar part.

Farrar: Jake Lenderman, one of the guitar players — there were so many songs where we would have a wall of guitar amps, and we’d be trying to like this riff for this part and this riff for that. We had so much fun figuring out the sounds to fit the songs, and he’s so down for that.

Adams: Do you feel something different when a band like that is working with you?

Farrar: Yeah, Wednesday is a great example of a band that I immediately connect with their influences and the sonics of what they’re interested in, musically. Like Karly’s a huge Unwound fan. Jake’s a huge Pavement guy. We’d go back and forth on these bands that we loved, and the sounds that we’re chasing together. It was an immediate connection.

Adams: Jake Lenderman is also MJ Lenderman the solo artist. How is it going from working with a band to working with a more individual project like the album “Boat Songs” from 2022?

Farrar: He is remarkably driven. He comes in with a plan. The book is open and we throw stuff at the wall, we find stuff. He came in, and we were just like, “Throw down like a scratch guitar.” And then like, throw some drums and kind of piecemeal together this song. It ends up being this very full band that’s coming through your speakers. But it’s great to work on each individual element with somebody, and put all these puzzle pieces on the table, and then figure out how to put them into what ends up being like this huge sounding song.

Adams: So when Jake Lenderman and Wednesday came back to do “Rat Saw God,” the new album, did it just feel like a continuation? Or does it feel different with each new recording that you work on with these groups?

Farrar: I think a little bit of both. But the more exciting part of it is, I think I could just totally see that. They just continue to get better. There’s growth in these artists. They’re just like always chasing. They’re not settling. Obviously, we had a record that was already established, which is rad, but it didn’t feel like the same record. It felt like we’re forging our own path here, and we’re kind of trying to grow as a band and make something new.

Adams: I would love to talk about Indigo De Souza a little bit.

Farrar: Indigo is a really incredible songwriter based in Asheville. She’s been making music, seems like all her life. I met her through the process of making “Any Shape You Take.” Adam McDaniel, along with producer Brad Cook, who is an incredible producer based in Durham, North Carolina — the three of us worked on that record together, and the sort of thing that tied it all together was she was just so driven. She’s one of those musicians who just doesn’t settle for anything. Like, this isn’t done until it’s like the best thing it can be. I love working with someone who has that drive and vision.

Adams: Who else do we want to talk about? What are some other records that you’ve worked on recently?

Farrar: Yeah, there’s a couple of bands I would love to shout out that are from North Carolina as well. They have releases that aren’t announced yet. Fust is a project primarily headed by this singer, Aaron Dowdy, who is from Abington and is an absolutely incredible lyricist and songwriter.

Secret Shame is an Asheville band, and I’ve worked on a record with them that came out earlier this year. They’re another great example of how wildly fertile and cool Asheville musicians are.

And then Truth Club is … I don’t know exactly how to describe them. Their guitar player described them as a slow core band that plays too fast. They’re this like whacked-out math rock, grungy indie madness, and they’re just so incredible.

Asheville, NC’s Music Recording Scene And Our Song Of The Week On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina has become something of an “it” record studio. Run by Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel, the studio has racked up a slew of acclaimed records inside the past year, including albums by Angel Olsen, Archers of Loaf and more.

On this West Virginia Morning, Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, North Carolina has become something of an “it” record studio. Run by Alex Farrar and Adam McDaniel, the studio has racked up a slew of acclaimed records inside the past year, including albums by Angel Olsen, Archers of Loaf and more.

Inside Appalachia host Mason Adams spoke with Farrar about recording and the Asheville music scene.

Also, in this show, this week’s encore broadcast of Mountain Stage is from our 2022 fall season and features Ireland’s We Banjo 3 – who has our Song of the Week.

We Banjo 3 made their second appearance on Mountain Stage during this visit. The Galway, Ireland, and Nashville-based quartet incorporates banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar and percussion beside strong choruses and melodic hooks, to create their buzz-worth live shows.

We listen to the band’s performance of “Garden Song,” which is included on their album Open The Road.

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 Concord University and Shepherd University.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Caroline MacGregor, Curtis Tate, Chris Schulz, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, Randy Yohe, and Shepherd Snyder.

Eric Douglas is our news director. Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and producer.

Teresa Wills is our host. Zander Aloi guest hosted this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

North Carolina’s Amy Ritchie Shares Her Love For The Art Of Taxidermy

For some people, taxidermy – preserving and mounting dead animals – can seem a little bit creepy. But for others, taxidermy is a serious art form that’s growing in popularity. One expert practitioner in Yadkin County, North Carolina enjoys sharing her work with others.

This story originally aired in the May 28, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

I felt a little apprehensive as I walked up to Amy Ritchie’s workshop in Hamptonville, North Carolina. Especially after hearing the message on her voicemail.

Ritchie’s confident voice was bright and clear on the recording. “Hi! You’ve reached Amy of Amy’s Animal Arts. I’m probably skinning a bobcat or sewing up the neck of a giraffe. Please leave me a message, and I’ll call you back as soon as I can stop and pull off the rubber gloves.”

Ritchie is an award-winning taxidermist. Her studio is located in her four-bay garage. It’s large, bright and airy…with about 150 deer antlers hanging from the high ceilings. Everything is neatly organized. On one side, power tools hang on a wall next to shelves filled with paints and adhesives.

Over 150 deer antlers hang overhead in Ritchie’s studio. One by one, they will be paired with their corresponding deer capes (the head, and neck of the deer), which are stored in Ritchie’s freezer.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef*/*West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The other side of the studio is a veritable zoo. A few giraffes, lions, armadillos, bears, coyotes and foxes in suspended motion. They seem so vital, I couldn’t help but reach out and touch them. They felt soft and real.

“I’m really passionate about taxidermy,” Ritchie said. “I think at my core, I just love it. It’s what I was meant to do.”

Ritchie grew up in rural North Carolina, homeschooled by her mom. She said that gave her plenty of time to follow her interests.

That included animals… particularly dead ones.

“When I was 13, I found a roadkill snake and wanted to turn it into a belt,” she said. “I asked mom if I could have a knife from the kitchen to skin the snake and she said, ‘Just please wear gloves so you don’t get a disease.’”

It was a king snake with a white-chain pattern. Ritchie taught herself how to skin and tan it.

“I was able to find the information online, how to use glycerin and some different products from just the pharmacy to be able to tan that…And there I was… [wearing a] snakeskin belt,” she said.

Ritchie admitted she was an unusual child with unusual interests.

“I like being unique. I mean, why be like everyone else? And I never have been.”

Ritchie said her dad also supported her interest in taxidermy. He had a second job delivering newspapers early in the morning.

“He would find all the fresh roadkill,” Ritchie said. “So that’s how he would bring home raccoons and possums and things for me to practice skinning.”

When she was 16, Ritchie’s dad encouraged her to enter a national taxidermy competition. Her entry was a red squirrel mounted on a bed of leaves as if it was sleeping. Ritchie competed in the open division. And even though she was a novice, she walked away with third place.

She’s gone on to win many awards over the years. Now at 36, she’s a highly skilled taxidermist in demand. She makes her living mounting animals for hunters and collectors.

Ritchie continued our tour. She showed me what she was working on.

”We got some of the actual messy stuff going on. This is a wild boar someone brought in just yesterday.”

The bones and bulk of the meat had already been removed. Ritchie started by preparing and tanning the hide. She grabbed a knife.

“We have to take this meat off. And so I’ll hold the knife and work it. Down like this… it’s fascinating and kind of satisfying to slowly shave this off,” she said.

Ritchie is small, just over five feet tall. She wrapped the exposed hide tightly on the edge of her work bench and scraped the knife along the boar’s hide in rhythmic motion.

“I have to press down with this knife and shave this down,” she explained. “So, big job right here.”

At this stage, the hide was stiff and unwieldy.

“It’s hard. I can’t even fold the hide. By the time I’m done, it’ll be soft and I can. It will not take up as much space in my freezer.”

Amy Ritchie braces herself against a workbench as she shaves meat off of a wild boar hide before she wraps it tightly in a bag to store in her freezer.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

The freezer. It’s the part of the tour I was most curious about. Ritchie has seven chest freezers. She opened a freezer lid, and I pulled out one of about 50 gallon-sized Ziploc bags. Inside was something called a deer cape. It was compact. It felt like a frozen roast.

“Yeah, it’s just the skin, and it’s the head and the shoulders of the deer and wrapped up really tight.”

After Ritchie treats the hide, she crafts the animal shape. She carves muscles, veins and bone mass out of a foam mold like a sculptor. She sands the mold, applies adhesives and wraps the skin around it. Then she smooths out irregularities before sewing it up with artfully hidden stitches. She uses glass eyes.

“You got to detail the eyes so that they look realistic,” Ritchie said. “So they have expression… those things that separate, you know, just hide a similar from an artistic taxidermist.”

Ritchie says when she was starting out, she didn’t know many other women in the field. But she says that’s changed in the past few years. And she’s helping to train a new generation through her Facebook page and YouTube channel.

Ritchie is also training a new generation through an apprenticeship. Ritchie introduced me to her first apprentice, Mariah Petrea as she helped Petrea carve a foam mold with a deer mount. They’ll sand and apply adhesives before pulling a deer cape onto the form.

Mariah Petrea carves a foam mold to make the shape unique to the deer cape that she’ll wrap on the mold with adhesives.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Petrea started out as a customer. She came to Ritchie’s workshop a couple of years ago to drop off a deer to be mounted and the two hit it off. Mariah was a little uneasy with the work at first.

“Being an animal person myself, I was like, ‘Oh, my heart’s going to get in the way. Will I be able to clean this cat? Because it looks like my pet cat in a way just a little bit bigger,’ and you get to come to terms with things,” Petrea said. “What’s lying there, it can’t feel anything. And after you do it once, it’s just a motion you go through.”

Now Petrea works part-time with Ritchie and hopes to start her own taxidermy business. She says her favorite part is breathing life into her subjects.

“It has been amazing how you can make a piece of foam with some clay look realistic,” Petrea said. “And that is the start of everything, just taking something that looks lifeless and making it look realistic. When you saw it out in the woods or a picture.”

Like Mariah, most of Ritchie’s clients are hunters who bring in deer trophies or bobcats. Ritchie says she rarely hunts — though she doesn’t have a problem with it as long as the animals are legally obtained.

“I’m here in the South where really, if you haven’t seen a deer head or know what taxidermy is, you know, how are you even a Southerner?”

But Ritchie’s most prized mounts are from a trip she made to Africa. It includes the head and neck of an adult giraffe looming over ten feet tall in her studio.

Hunting giraffes is controversial. Ritchie says the animal was an older male that was beyond breeding age and had been attacking younger giraffes. She also has a mother and baby giraffe that were donated by a zoo after they died of natural causes.

Amy Ritchie poses with a baby giraffe donated by a zoo after it died from natural causes. Ritchie enjoys sharing her animal menagerie with others, especially kids who haven’t been able to see some of the animal types before.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Ritchie enjoys sharing her collection with others, especially kids.

“They come in here and they’re like wow, mom and dad, what’s that? What’s that? And I love to tell them, it’s, you know, this animal that you’ve never seen before,” Ritchie said. “And it really gets you more up close than you would even in most zoos… And how many kids get to pet a baby giraffe?”

Ritchie says she’s constantly looking for new ways to expand her craft. More active poses, more detailed scenery. She says part of the pleasure for her is the transformation. Like when she turned that snakeskin she found on the side of the road into an eye-catching belt.

“I think the fascination with just thinking, wow, that would have just been thrown away. And I have done something with something that would have rotted. And maybe that’s why I like taxidermy so much,” she said. “The idea that you can make something from nothing.”

For Ritchie, it’s more than just preserving animals. She enjoys sharing this art form… whether it’s with her clients or with people who just stop by to marvel at her studio.

Amy Ritche’s truck reflects her enthusiasm for her art form. It is unmistakable in Hamtonville, NC, complete with a specialized license tag.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Amy Ritchie sewing a bobcat.

*Credit: Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

A taxidermy African Porcupine.

*Margaret McLeod Leef/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

——

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

How Jennifer Pharr Davis Found Herself On The Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail is one of Appalachia’s best known features. And few people know the Appalachian Trail better than Jennifer Pharr Davis, a North Carolina native who’s through-hiked the A.T. three times.

This conversation originally aired in the April 2, 2023 episode of Inside Appalachia.

The Appalachian Trail is one of Appalachia’s best known features.

And few people know the Appalachian Trail better than Jennifer Pharr Davis, a North Carolina native who’s through-hiked the A.T. three times.

In 2008, on her second through-hike, she set the record for the fastest Appalachian Trail hike by a woman. Three years later, she through-hiked it again — and this time set the record for the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail by anyone up to that point.

Davis continues to blaze new trails and serve as a celebrity in the world of outdoor recreation. She recently spoke with Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams about some of her hikes — and how they shaped her identity as an Appalachian.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Adams: You have through-hiked all over — the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail. How did you first get into hiking and these long distance hikes?

Davis: Without realizing it, I think the mountains were just always a part of me. I grew up in western North Carolina, and looking around, I always saw the mountains and the forest, and quite frankly, took it for granted. But then I started traveling. When I graduated college at 21, I faced this problem of really not knowing what to do with my life, where I was going to go, what I was going to do for work, who I really was. I just wanted time and a place to figure things out. Growing up in the southern Appalachians, I’d always heard of the Appalachian Trail. I had never set foot on it. I only spent two nights outdoors before, but I thought, “Hey, I know it’s a long trail. It usually takes five or six months to hike. Sounds like an adventure. Seems affordable.” I was 21. So I thought, “Well, hiking is technically just walking. How hard could it be?” And so I set off on my own from Georgia with the goal of walking all the way to Maine. After five months, I made it there, and I was a different person. I’ve never looked back after that. I’ve very much felt like a part of me belongs outdoors in the forest.

Adams: You’ve hiked the Appalachian Trail three times. What’s pulled you back to that particular through-hike?

Davis: The Appalachians have my heart. And there is some sense of roots and connection. In the United States especially, so many of us are looking for our roots and taking DNA tests and trying to find out, “Who am I? Where did I come from? What’s my heritage? What’s my culture?” At some point in my life, I just decided I was Appalachian. It’s like, “Well, I’m a mutt. But this is where I’m born. This is where I grew up. This is where I choose to live.” Hiking all over the world, you realize different places, different mountains — they all have different energies. The Appalachians to me are this wise, maternal wrinkled old grandmother or great grandmother, who was so welcoming and so wise and just wants to invite you in and share wisdom.

So when I’m on the Appalachian Trail, the beauty is in the details and the biodiversity, and the fact that the mountains are some of the oldest in the world, if not the oldest. That essence and spirit is there. Every time I go out there and hike, whether it’s the full Appalachian Trail or just taking my kids out, I think that is what I’m taking home with me though the wisdom and the nurturing spirit of Appalachia.

Adams: You mentioned how you took to the Appalachian Trail, partly to find yourself. And then you allude to a point in time in which you decided that you were Appalachian; that was part of your identity. Do you remember a pivotal moment that helped crystallize that thought for you along the way?

Davis: Yes. And it’s funny because I think so much of the transformation or growth or lessons on long distance trails happen over time. It’s not something that occurs in a moment. But I did have an experience when I was hiking over the ridges of Roan Mountain, which is on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee. It’s one of those places where you hike out on this grassy ridge, and you get 360-degree views. There I was at sunset, and I could see mountains all around me. The sky was changing color and the mountain was changing colors at the end of the day, and I was the only one up there. I could hear the birds and the flame azalea had started to bloom. It’s also a spruce fir mountain, so it smells like Christmas, even in the spring.

There I was in that moment, looking around, and it just hit me that I was a part of it. Like, I was a part of nature. I was a part of that scene. At first, that didn’t make sense to me because growing up, I thought nature was cool, beautiful — but it was out the window. I saw it as separate. And then here I was in this moment looking around. I was like, “Wait a minute. Biologically, I am a part of all this.” Then I thought about it through my spiritual lens. And I was like, “Yeah, I really think I’m a part of creation. I’m a part of nature.” When I accepted that truth, I was changed right away.

Adams: You’ve gone on to do more and more hikes, but I wanted to ask you about one other hike in particular, and that’s the Mountains-to-Sea hike. I understand not only did you hike the entire thing, but with an infant!

Davis: Behind the Appalachian Trail, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail is probably my favorite. It’s a 1,200-mile footpath that stretches across the state of North Carolina, from the Tennessee border to the Outer Banks. So the way logistically that worked, my husband would meet me at road crossings, and I was hiking morning to night. We would try to camp together or stay with friends off-trail. He was caring for the kids along the way during the day. But I was nursing my son before I started hiking in the morning.

I look back on that experience, and in a lot of ways, it was harder than the A.T. record. The A.T. record that we set gets a lot of attention. But in a lot of ways, I was more humbled and more challenged by trying to do the Mountains-To-Sea Trail with two young children — caring for them, trying to navigate the relationship with my husband — was extremely difficult for him as well.

——

Davis recently sold the business she founded in 2008, Blue Ridge Hiking Company, to its longtime manager. Davis will take more time to write and speak, and is pursuing a graduate degree to further her work.

Listen to the full interview on Inside Appalachia or click/tap the “Listen” button at the top of this story.