Life On The Crooked Road

As a lover of music in general, and acoustical music in particular, when I retired in 2009, I needed to find a way to get closer to the music I love. So here I am, in the mountains of Southwest Virginia, living on the Crooked Road.

What's the Crooked Road?

The Crooked Road is Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, a driving route through the Appalachian Mountains from the Blue Ridge to the Coalfields region, following U.S. Route 58. The trail connects major heritage music venues in the region such as the Blue Ridge Music Center, Birthplace of Country Music Alliance, and the Carter Family Fold.

Nowhere else in this country, I've lived on both coasts, and was raised in the center of the country, have I found a part of this great United States that has more of a commitment to the preservation to this style of music than communities on The Crooked Road.

The numbers of jams, festivals, and concerts throughout the year are endless. Almost every week there is something going on, and it involves music.

When I made my first trip to Big Stone Gap in the summer of 2011 to attend the Annual Mountain Music School at the Mountain Empire Community College, I though I was getting knee-deep in Bluegrass, but got a quick education on the difference between Bluegrass, and Old-Time Mountain Music.

I was introduced to the world of the Carter Family, Doc Boggs, and all of the folks that put this great music on records to preserve them for me in the 21st century.

Oh! there's Bluegrass around too. There are jams every night of the week where you can play any type of music you want. You can even find Country Music, Classic Rock and Hip Hop here as well, but people here all know where those influences came from.

That's right, they all have branches that lead back to the roots of the common man's music, back to mountains of Appalachia, and the roots of music that is 100% American.

So, if you love music of all types, and want to experience it in it's native setting, The Crooked Road is the place to start. I guarantee once you start here, you won't want to go anywhere else.

I know I didn't!