Sights & SoundsThe Old Jimmy Sutton
A masterful songster recorded by two folklorists, fifty years apart. When the late folklorist Alan Lomax set out on his now infamous “Southern Journey” in 1959, he stopped in Chilhowie, …
Sights & SoundsSherman Holmes Project: The Richmond Sessions
The first solo recording in his more than fifty-year career, Sherman Holmes’ The Richmond Sessions carries on the spirit of the revered Holmes Brothers by reimagining songs and making them …
Sights & SoundsFrank Newsome: Gone Away with a Friend (Free Dirt Records)
On Gone Away with a Friend, Frank Newsome sings a more than four-century-long American tradition into the present. His arresting style—the lined-out hymn singing of the Old Regular Baptists from …
Sights & SoundsHoustonFest Recap: Listen to Doyle Lawson, Jesse McReynolds, and Chuck Wagon Gang Workshop
The Virginia Folklife Program sponsored and participated in the fifth annual HoustonFest in Galax, Virginia, on May 1 and 2. HoustonFest commemorates the life of Houston Caldwell, a bluegrass banjo …
Sights & SoundsMaggie Ingram: Live in Richmond
Evangelist Maggie Lee Ingram is unquestionably the “Gospel Queen” of Richmond, Virginia. Along with her family group, the Ingramettes, Maggie has delighted Richmond audiences for more than fifty years. Along the way, she has performed at such illustrious stages as the Kennedy Center and the National Folk Festival. In 2009 Maggie received the Virginia Heritage Award for a lifetime of excellence in the folk and traditional arts.
Sights & SoundsThe Paschall Brothers: Songs for Our Fathers
Hampton Roads, the growing metropolitan region at the convergence of the James River, Atlantic Ocean, and the Chesapeake Bay, has long been one of our country’s most musically fertile regions, producing world-class performers in a broad range of musical styles from jazz to rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and perhaps most notably, gospel. In its heyday in the early-to-mid twentieth century, the region became known internationally for its classic Tidewater Gospel Sound, sung in four-part harmony, without musical accompaniment. The Paschall Brothers are the current torch bearers of this traditional singing style.
Sights & SoundsSpencer Family & Friends: Greetings from Whitetop
Deep in the most rugged mountains of southwestern Virginia, on the slopes and in the hollows of Mt. Rogers and Whitetop Mountain, a rich tradition of old-time music has endured through many decades of changes. As the popularity of bluegrass, rock, and rap flooded the country, and as the popularity of old-time music came and went, and arose again throughout the Appalachians, the old-time musicians of the Whitetop area maintained their pure, rich musical heritage like burning embers in a banked fire.
Sights & SoundsNat Reese: Save A Seat for Me
Nathaniel Hawthorne “Nat” Reese was born March 4, 1924 in Salem, Virginia to Thomas Walker Reese and Rosa Sylvester Caroline Wilson Reese. Thomas was originally from Montgomery, Alabama, and Rosa from Bessemer, Alabama. The family had previously lived in Florida and Georgia before coming to Virginia to, as Nat puts it, “get away from the cotton fields.”
Sights & SoundsEddie Bond: Take Me Back
As this recording demonstrates, Eddie Bond has talents that can bring an audience out of their seats. He is a powerful singer in a soulful Blue Ridge Mountain tradition, as well as one of the most respected old-time fiddlers in the Blue Ridge.
Sights & SoundsLinda Lay & Sammy Shelor: Taking the Crooked Road Home
Linda and Sammy come from legendary musical communities on Virginia’s Crooked Road. The Meadows of Dan and Clayman Valley are tiny mountain places separated by 150 miles of hairpin turns, old mills, crossroads stores, mom and pop eateries, and towns with one stop light or none, but only 90 miles by the way the crow flies.
Sights & SoundsFrank Newsome: Gone Away with a Friend
A few years back at his Hills of Home Festival in Coeburn, Virginia, Ralph Stanley brought out a special guest during his set that he and his wife Jimmie wanted us to hear. There, alone on that stage, Frank Newsome sang “Gone Away With a Friend.” I’m sure there were many others like me who were riveted and had a profound experience. On many levels it was one of the most powerful, spiritual, mournful, emotional, beautiful, and hopeful things I have ever heard. There is a purity about Frank’s singing that brings a soul-stirring, heart-tugging peacefulness that is beyond words.
Sights & SoundsThe Mullins Family: Let Your Light Shine Out
I am happy to declare that there are many things worth remembering about my childhood. There are lots of memories that have evaporated over time, but the earliest sights and sounds that still ring the most clearly are those of music and singing. I have come to understand that the love of making music with one’s voice has long been a central part of my family. I may never know exactly how far back the story goes, but I do know that singing has to be just about as much a part of my being as living and breathing.
