This week, people continue to resist the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Some folks have complained to the company about noise from compressor stations. Also, why is Appalachia so prone to severe flooding? We spoke with a reporter whose team dug into the data to find out. And, a good blanket will keep you warm on a cold night, but a handmade temperature blanket can convey a message to a loved one.
John Smith fretting a five-string bass at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
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Fifty years ago, a band of Black musicians stood up to racism and now they’ve been honored for that action.
Bass player John Smith is the surviving member of “The In Crowd,” a Charleston, West Virginia band that played popular tunes in the 1960s. One night at the Charleston Athletic Club, a multi-racial couple was refused service and the band took a stand.
Smith says, “If they couldn’t dance, we wouldn’t play.”
There were consequences for that action, but now, finally, Smith and his deceased colleagues have been honored for the role they played to push back against racial discrimination.
For this episode, host Trey Kay talks with John Smith at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. They sat in on a practice session of the Charleston-based band The Carpenter Ants. Practice gave way to conversation as musicians from different generations talked about their experiences past and present. They reflect on a golden era of the local music scene and the unity AND division they’ve all experienced.
This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.
Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond. You also can listen to Us & Them on WVPB Radio — tune in on the fourth Thursday of every month at 8 p.m., with an encore presentation on the following Saturday at 3 p.m.
Trey Kay
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John Smith on his front porch swing at his home in Rand, WV.
John Smith
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Young John Smith playing guitar while serving in the Army in Germany in 1959.
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Michael Pushkin, President of Local 136 of the American Federation of musicians, at the Levi Baptist Church in Rand, WV, apologizing to John Smith and the late members of “The In Crowd” for the actions the union took fifty years ago.
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The Carpenter Ants practicing at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in Charleston, WV. Charlie Tee (vocals), Michael Lipton (guitar), Ted Harrison (bass) and Jupie Little (drums).
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Barbara and John Smith grooving to the Carpenter Ants at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
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Carpenter Ants bassist Ted Harrison showing John Smith his five-string bass at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Brian Smith
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Trey Kay with Barbara and John Smith at the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
This week, people continue to resist the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Some folks have complained to the company about noise from compressor stations. Also, why is Appalachia so prone to severe flooding? We spoke with a reporter whose team dug into the data to find out. And, a good blanket will keep you warm on a cold night, but a handmade temperature blanket can convey a message to a loved one.
At least 95% of people in state prisons will one day be released — but success after incarceration is far from guaranteed. This encore episode of Us & Them examines the challenges of re-entry and why recognizing trauma may be essential to breaking cycles of incarceration.
Pearls are prized gemstones that have been crafted into jewelry for millennia. They can be found in the wild, but they’re also cultivated on farms. We hear a report from North America’s lone freshwater pearl farm located along Kentucky Lake in Tennessee.
This week, we’re revisiting our episode “What Is Appalachia?” from December 2021. Appalachia connects mountainous parts of the South, the Midwest, the Rust Belt and even the Northeast. That leaves so much room for geographic and cultural variation, as well as many different views on what Appalachia really is.
