The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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Photo by H.W. Smith:
Roni Stoneman, performing here at the 2006 Wayne Henderson Music Festival, is one of three of Ernest Stoneman's daughters, who carries on country music's longest family legacy. |
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Southwest Virginians have an ear for music, and two new exhibits at the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum of Ferrum College showcase the long history of picking and singing in the mountains.
Crooked Road Royalty and Musical Styles Along the Crooked Road are open daily in the museum's galleries on the Ferrum College campus through February of 2009. The museum is the State Center for Blue Ridge Folklore and a major venue along the Crooked Road: Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. Gallery admission is free.
Crooked Road Royalty highlights the careers of the Hill Billies, the Stoneman Family, the Carter Family and the Stanley Brothers, four Virginia powerhouse groups that helped build the American country music industry.
Musical Styles Along the Crooked Road presents the rich variety of roots music western Virginians sing and play--bluegrass, ballads of love and death, sentimental mountain songs, blues and gospel.
Both exhibits include rare film footage and photographs of historic Crooked Road musicians.
Today's country musicians know their debt to Southwest Virginia's musical royalty. In the 1920s, the Hill Billies gave their name to an entire form of American music, and the Stoneman Family added over 200 recordings to the nation's song bag. In the 1930s and early '40s, the Carter Family's sentimental songs soothed the country in hard times, and the Stanley Brothers put an old-time mountain legacy on bluegrass.
"The story of American country music is filled with singers and pickers from the Crooked Road region," said Andrew Pauly, exhibit researcher. "Even today's young country music stars know songs that were first recorded by the early Southwest Virginia artists."
Crooked Road Royalty and Musical Styles Along the Crooked Road will travel to numerous venues in Southwest Virginia in the coming years. The exhibits have been produced by the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum for the Crooked Road with funding from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification & Community Revitalization Commission.
For more information, call 540-365-4416 or visit www.blueridgeinstiute.org. |
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