UNFORGETTABLE MUSIC.Pick a musical genre: bluegrass, the blues, old time string music, old world ballads, acapella gospel. These are but a few of the rich music traditions woven into the fabric of The Crooked Road. You need only tug on an individual thread and a hundred stories will unfurl. Consider the journey of the banjo from Africa to the front porches of rural Appalachia. Or the Scotch-Irish migration that transplanted both people and their centuries-old musical traditions into the folds of Southwest Virginia’s mountains. At every turn in The Crooked Road, home to the fi rst-ever Mountains of Music Homecoming, there’s a compelling story to be told.

THE CROOKED ROAD’S

UNFORGETTABLE PLACES. It’s a modest little structure, built in 1937 as part of President Roosevelt’s WPA Program. But the Country Cabin in Norton, Virginia, has an outsized reputation for carrying forward the traditions of Appalachian music. Performers like ballad singer Kate Peters Sturgill performed regularly at the tiny community center. In 2002, Country Cabin II was built across the road, allowing larger audiences to savor its weekly performances of bluegrass, country and old-time music. Country Cabin II also hosts an annual festival honoring Dock Boggs, a banjo playing coal miner who influenced Bob Dylan, Doc Watson and a new generation of musicians, including Blue Highway. Today, Country Cabin (and it’s younger, bigger brother Country Cabin II) are but two of the not-to-be missed venues for the Homecoming. Others include The Carter Fold in Hiltons, The Rex Theater in Galax and the Floyd Country Store.

UNFORGETTABLE FACES. According to his resume, Joe Wilson has no graduate degrees and is not listed in the “Who’s Who of Anywhere,” but as a co-founder of The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, you might just call him a “Roads Scholar” of just about everything musical, cultural and historic across the nineteen counties of this 330 mile route. The Mountains of Music Homecoming celebrates folks like Joe -- and a whole host of others who give voice, in words and song, to this priceless heritage where America’s music was born.

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