Handmade Music School And American Chestnuts Trees, Inside Appalachia

A new generation is learning the story behind “Brown Hill,” a song by influential bluegrass band The Lost and Found.  

Also, data centers are changing the landscape, and one project is planning to plow over an extremely rare stand of seed-producing American chestnut trees.  

And, small food producers embrace digital technology for the humble farm stand. 

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

• Handmade Music School Plays Old Songs In New Ways
• Data Center Threatens Rare American Chestnut Orchard In W.Va.
• These Dreaming Hills Shares Dynamic Appalachian Storytelling
• Roanoke Tribune Mourns Death Of Publisher Claudia Whitworth
• ProPublica Opens Private School In W.Va With Mountain State Spotlight
• Biking Along The Great American Rail-Trail
• Us & Them Invites Guests To Midterm Dinner
• Roadside Farmstand Gets An Upgrade
  

Handmade Music School Plays Old Songs In New Ways

Young students at Floyd County, Virginia’s Handmade Music School are compiling a songbook of tunes that have become standards in their community. In addition to music, the book will feature the stories behind the songs.  

One of those songs came from influential Virginia bluegrass band The Lost & Found. The band was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame last month. 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.” 

Data Center Threatens Rare American Chestnut Orchard In W.Va.

Data centers are changing local landscapes. In Mason County, West Virginia, a planned data center is also threatening a very special and very rare stand of mature American Chestnut trees. Andrea “river” Peterson reports. 

These Dreaming Hills Shares Dynamic Appalachian Storytelling

A new anthology collects science fiction, fantasy and horror stories from writers across Appalachia. It’s called, These Dreaming Hills.

Producer Bill Lynch recently spoke with the anthology’s editor Noah Ashley Blooms. Blooms began by reading the introduction.

Roanoke Tribune Mourns Death Of Publisher Claudia Whitworth

For more than 80 years, The Roanoke Tribune has filled its pages with positive news about the Black community in Roanoke, Virginia, and far beyond. It was launched in 1939 as part of a chain of Black newspapers in Roanoke, Martinsville, and Charlottesville, Virginia, and Bluefield, West Virginia. Since 1971 it’s been published by second-generation owner Claudia Whitworth. Whitworth died in October. She was 98.

Host Mason Adams produced a story about The Roanoke Tribune for Inside Appalachia in 2020.

ProPublica Opens Private School In W.Va With Mountain State Spotlight

The nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica has been reporting on the use of public money to fund private education around the country. They’ve found that the availability of public money for private schools has resulted in many new schools. So, to test how easy it is to open a private school, the journalists – who are not professional educators – attempted to open their own schools in a few states, including West Virginia. In October, ProPublica partnered with West Virginia’s Mountain State Spotlight to publish a story about that experience and what it says about modern education. 

WVPB’s Chris Schulz spoke with ProPublica Reporter Jennifer Smith Richards.   

Biking Along The Great American Rail-Trail

Political gridlock in Washington is slowing bicycle and pedestrian trail development around the U.S. The Trump administration has made it clear it does not want to spend federal dollars on what transportation secretary Sean Duffy calls DEI bike lanes. But deep in Appalachia, there’s bipartisan support for a multiuse trail that would connect Ohio with West Virginia. NPR’s Joel Rose went to find out why.

Us & Them Invites Guests To Midterm Dinner

Trey Kay hosts a show on cultural issues on West Virginia Public Broadcasting – it’s called Us & Them. He’s made a tradition of inviting guests with a mix of conservative and progressive values to a shared dinner party to talk.

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, Trey hosted a potluck meal for his guests, half of whom were under 30. They shared a wide-ranging conversation.

Roadside Farmstand Gets An Upgrade

Roadside farmstands with fresh eggs or tomatoes are a common — and welcome — sight in Appalachia. They can be a way for people, especially rural women with kids at home, to support themselves economically. They often work on the honor system; there’s nobody there. You pick up a carton of berries and leave some cash. But the humble farm stand is changing to keep up with an increasingly cash-free society.

Folkways Reporter Wendy Welch visited a stand in Wythe County, Virginia.

--

Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Hello June, The Lost and Found, the Shootin’ Creek Critters, Blue Dot Sessions, Jeff Ellis, Tim and Dave Bing. 

Bill Lynch is our producer. Abby Neff is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Irina Zhorov is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from Folkways Editors Jennifer Goren and Molly Born.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter!

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Facebook.

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.