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Galax and music go together kind of like blue and grass..like old and time. In part three of our journey down The Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail, The Road deepens..in music and in meaning. 

We gallivant to Galax..a Crooked Road Capital.

“Well we’re the cradle of old time mountain music”, says Galax Tourism Director, Chuck Riedhammer. “We are the place where it all started”.

“I don’t know any other place where you can find as many musicians per capita”, Blue Ridge Music Center Manager, Joe Wilson adds.

“There’s probably more music here than anywhere else in the United States”, says Chuck.

Music like you’ll find at the annual Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention..going strong for over 70 years this August. Music like you’ll find inside the historic Rex Theatre in downtown Galax.

“On Friday nights we have our Blue Ridge Backroads”, Chuck explains.

It’s a music show run by volunteers in conjunction with WBRF-FM 98.1.

“Every Friday night we have bands in here sometimes a couple of bands and we do a live radio show”, says Chuck. “The bands volunteer to play for free just for the publicity and it’s a down home, family oriented, wonderful event”.

Just round the corner from The Rex, find time to fiddle around at Barr’s Fiddle Shop..a Galax institution..where Tom Barr sells ‘em off and saws ‘em off.

“Course, there was music at my house when I was just a kid”, says Tom. “I grew up in it”.

He’s been running the shop since 1980..hand making fiddles since ‘73.

“It’s just become part of life”, he says.

Down the road, at The Blue Ridge Music Center, we bumped into Tom’s banjo playing son, Stevie Barr.

“I was born in 1975 and started playing the banjo in 1979”, Stevie says. “There’s nothing like sitting down and being able to play music but the most important thing with me is the history that I’ve learned”.

History you can learn at the Center..located at mile post 213 of the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Virginia/North Carolina stateline. It’s a heritage Joe Wilson knows well. Many call him “The Godfather of The Crooked Road”.

“What we’re going to try to do is to tell some of these stories”, Joe says. “How the whole country music industry as we know it today has all of its roots here in this region. We’re going to talk about instrument making here in the mountains how some of the best instruments ever made are being made now right here. That banjo that came from Africa, the violin that came from Europe. Early America was very diverse. An American mix developed here so this area, this region here, this is where America became America it’s an important place”.

Importance that The Crooked Road is driving home.

“The thing that I think is so amazing about The Crooked Road is it was all there”, says Chuck. “They didn’t create anything they just created this marketing and this packaging and this outreach for all these musical venues and joined them together and it’s been huge, it’s been tremendous”.

“Everywhere I go you know everybody’s talking about The Crooked Road”, Tom adds.

“We think that we have a job of telling the country and the world that this is an important place”, says Joe.

Don’t forget, the Bristol Herald Courier’s Progress Edition comes out Sunday March 4. You can read much more about The Crooked Road there or go to The Crooked Road’s website at http://www.thecrookedroad.org

Posted by Tim Cable

This might not be New England but Bill and Carolyn Bailey have turned their Sullivan Gardens area farm into a little maple syrup operation..and they’re getting their own sweet rewards from it. 

Roots run deep on the Bailey farm.

“I’ve lived here all my life”, says Bill Bailey. “It’s a family farm”.

Deep roots..even in their hundred year old trees.

“They’re the sugar maples the old timey sugar maples”, Carolyn Bailey says.

So Bill & Carolyn Bailey went out on a limb and decided to make their own maple syrup.

“My brother-in-law really got us interested in it”, says Bill. “He had some of the taps that you put in trees and we said, well just bring them down I’ve got about five trees here we’ll just tap some of them and see what we can get”.

“We did not know anything about making maple syrup”, Carolyn laughs. “And we have become what we consider experts now”.

When you boil it all down, the process is pretty simple.

“It’s actually very simple”, says Carolyn.

They just tap the trees and hang the collection jugs on the taps.

“The sap is clear as water when it comes out of the tree”, Bill adds. “You have to check the jugs about every six or eight hours there. When I have about ten gallons I’ll boil it off and keep boiling it all down til it turns into the syrup which it’ll take three hours or better with my process using the propane”.

“Then he brings it in and I filter it and put it in the jars”, Carolyn adds. “So it’s actually a very easy process it’s just time consuming”.

“It takes ten gallons of the sap to make one quart of the syrup”, according to Bill.

And after the boiling of course comes the tasting, you know I had to help out with that. If you ask me, it tastes like sweet nostalgia.

“It’s not strong it’s just real sweet”, Bill says.

“The first of the season is the light amber”, says Carolyn describing the color. “And for many people they think that’s the Cadillac of the syrup that’s what they want is the light”.

“Back then, years ago, everything came from the farm”, Bill says. “So they had their own they made their own syrup from trees rather than go to the store. I’ll tell you one thing: it sure went good on pancakes this morning”.

“After you’ve had it on your pancakes or waffles it’s very very hard to go back to just your store bought syrup”, continues Carolyn.

“It would be cheaper to go buy it in the store”, says Bill. “But you know, why not try it”?

Yep, the Baileys have tapped into a sweet, new pastime..boiling up their backyard brew.

“It’s fun because it’s new”, Carolyn says. “It’s just something to say we’ve done it and we may, yeah, we may keep doing it every season”.

“It’s a novelty”, Bill says with a smile. “And it tastes pretty good, too”.

Posted by Tim Cable

Catch us on the flipside in Floyd as Joe and I make our second stop along Virginia’s Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail. 

Forward to Floyd. And Floyd’s not flashy..except for maybe the town’s only stop light. But Floyd has flavor..especially in a certain hundred year old building.

“A store on the main street of a small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains”, says Floyd Country Store Owner, Woody Crenshaw. “This is in a way the heart and soul of the town of Floyd”.

Especially on Friday nights when a couple of hundred hungry music lovers fill up the store for a taste of tradition.

“It’s traditional old time and bluegrass music played by musicians from Floyd County and from this region”, Woody says.

They call it, The Friday Night Jamboree.

“It’s just a very compelling small town local event that warms people’s hearts when they come and see it”, explains Woody. “The Floyd Country Store is one of the old, traditional places in Southwest Virginia that music has been played and appreciated for generations”.

And folks in Floyd really appreciate their music.

“Music is very important to Floyd”, says Floyd Chamber of Commerce Director, Diane Davidson. “Friday nights are really a hoppin’ place here in Floyd. On a given Friday night, there’ll be five to six different choices of music”.

Down the road at the Floyd Pickin’ Porch, Blues Guitarist Scott Perry says he’s on a musical mission.

“I had made it my singular mission to sort of put the blues back into bluegrass”, Scott says. “Historically, there’s a lot of connections between old time and blues and bluegrass as well”.

His shop features hand made musical instruments crafted by music makers from the region. You’ll even find a pink Floyd guitar. And you’ll find you get straight talk from Scott about The Crooked Road.

“The Crooked Road is you know a way to dive into the musical heritage of this region”, says Scott. “You know music is important everywhere but in the South you know this is where most of the best stuff came from. It’s a very important part of the cultural fabric of this area”.

Next week: we go to Galax, the home of old time mountain music and the annual fiddler’s convention.
Don’t forget: the Bristol Herald Courier’s big Progress Edition comes out Sunday March 4..where you can read lots more about The Crooked Road. 

Posted by Tim Cable

Yates Biggs was raised around mountain music near Newland, North Carolina. He’s a retired steelworker who helped build Watauga Dam in the 1940’s. After he retired, he picked up one of his favorite pastimes again. 

Yates Biggs has outlived many a musical instrument.

“I’d learned to play a guitar a little”, he remembers. “Most of us learned to play a guitar we wore one out in our family”.

Some years later, he made the move to a mandolin.

“Bill Monroe might’ve had something to do with it”, says Yates. “Bill had something that was a little special on it. If you play it right, it almost talks”.

At 90, he’s probably around 30 years older than the mandolin he plays.

“Still plays as good as ever”, he says.

His den is turned into a pickin’ parlor..where he and his nephew, Joe Broyles, provide a pickin’ partnership.

“We’ve been at it a pretty good while”, says Yates.

You don’t see too many 90-year-old mandolin players around.

“No, I don’t guess you do”, he laughs. “I hadn’t thought much about it but there may be some but I don’t know where they’re at”.

He says playing the old music helps keep him young.

“Oh yes, I think so”, says Yates. “It really helps. There’s something about music that makes you want to dance anyway. It makes me awful thankful to my Maker that He’s kept me in good health and let me stay here that long for some reason”.

And whatever the reason is, he just wants it to keep playing out.

“Well just as long as the Good Lord leaves me here that I can get around I’ll probably play a little on it”, Yates says. “There’s sort of a..enjoyable something in your soul when you’re making music”.

Holding on to the music..holding on to the music maker he loves. I’d say somebody would have to fight him to take his mandolin away from him.

“Yeah, that’s right”, laughs Yates. “I’d put up a pretty good little scrap”.

Posted by Tim Cable

Bobbie Wheeler ran a shop for years in Elizabethton with a friend called, “Smalltown U.S.A.” Now, she’s moved the whole town up to Stoney Creek. 

Little things mean a lot to Bobbie Wheeler.

“I just like small things”, she says.

“In her garage workshop, nicknamed “Smalltown U.S.A.”..

“Everything is in miniature”, says Bobbie.

She stays a little preoccupied.

“It’s therapy”, she says. “It’s really a therapy to me”.

She calls herself a Miniaturist. Collector of things great and small for over 20 years now.

“There isn’t anything in real life that you cannot find in miniature, plus things”, Bobbie says.

What started with a printer’s tray led to dollhouses and room boxes. She uses domes now, too. She gets a theme in mind..like her big, little Antique Shop..and goes to work.

“If you’re working on a project, it can take anywhere from days to years”, she adds.

She has three years work in her Victorian dollhouse.

“Sometimes you have to wait to find just the right piece to put in”, says Bobbie.

Thinking big about little, she makes about half of what she collects and buys the rest.

“You don’t necessarily have to know where it’s going to go when you find it but something you think you could use”, she says. “You can just about use anything”.

Picked up sticks in her yard she turned into dolls. A large part of thinking small involves detail.

“I think you have to be quite detailed”, says Bobbie.

And organized.

“I have lots of little drawers and boxes and places to put my things while they’re waiting”, she adds.

It takes a little patience.

“Probably more than I have sometimes”, Bobbie laughs.

She says she hasn’t even dared to be patient enough to count all the miniatures she has.

“I have no idea”, she says with a grin. “Thousands for sure”.

She does have her little favorites..like her doll peddler.

“It’s a doll that’s selling dolls and all the dolls with the exception of just two or three are hand made in there”, Bobbie says. “Also I have a red and white Christmas kitchen that I like a lot”.

And miniature furniture pieces found in an attic in Nashville.

“And after researching it, we found that they dated back to 1867”, according to Bobbie.

From tack shops to toy soldiers..and bird’s nests to bachelor pads..she’s having a big time with this little collection.

“You know the hunt is the fun part”, she says. “Finding all the different pieces for what you’re working on”.

Yes it is a small world after all for Bobbie and it’s a world that she just wants to keep on dwelling in”.

“I would like to live in this small world always I think I mean I really enjoy it”.

Sounds like Bobbie will continue to have her mind on “very little”. 

Posted by Tim Cable