Virginia

Franklin County Banjo Player Gene Parker Made His Instrument Sing

Young students at Floyd County, Virginia’s Handmade Music School are compiling a songbook of tunes that have become standards in their community. One of those songs came from influential Virginia bluegrass band The Lost & Found. This summer, Handmade Music School student Rylah Grim spoke with the band’s longtime banjo player Gene Parker, about a song he helped write, called “Brown Hill.”

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Encore: Willie Carver Jr. And Marina Waters, Inside Appalachia

This week, in author Willie Carver, Jr.’s new book, he reconsiders a negative childhood experience with a neighborhood girl who might have just been looking for a friend. Also, a southwestern Virginia community rang the alarm after more and more of its children were diagnosed with cancer. A local journalist is trying to unravel the cause. And, the city of Asheville has a new crusading reporter. He’s a puppet.

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A Traditional Japanese Garden In Virginia Tethers A Family Story To The Land

Elk Creek, Virginia, is a small, unincorporated community located in Grayson County, about a half hour from the North Carolina border. Many people in Elk Creek have deep ties to their land, and for one family taking care of their land and honoring their ancestors meant creating a traditional Japanese Shinto Garden. From Elk Creek, Folkways Reporter Wendy Welch brings us the story.

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The Changing Appalachian Farmstand, This West Virginia Morning

Roadside farmstands with homemade jams and bread are a common sight in Appalachia. Because they’re unmanned, many of them work on the honor system: Take a carton of berries, leave some cash. But the humble farm stand is changing to keep up with an increasingly cash-free society. Folkways Reporter Wendy Welch recently visited a stand in Wythe County, Virginia and has this.

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