THE WRECK OF THE OLD ’97 was an American rail disaster involving the Southern Railway mail train — officially known as the Fast Mail (train number 97). While en route from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, …
BY JOSH BECKWORTH— Perhaps no town in the Southern Appalachian mountains is more unique than Fries, Virginia. In a region that has historically grown slowly from small settlements to more developed towns and communities, Fries …
BY MARTY McGEE Emmett W. Lundy of Delhart was reputed to be one of the finest oldtime fiddlers from the Galax, Virginia, area. Born during the Civil War, Lundy acquired much of his older repertoire …
—BY JOSH BECKWORTH G.B., or Gilliam Banmon, Grayson was born on November 11th, 1887. The precise location of his birth is unclear, but was either in Ashe County, North Carolina, or in bordering Johnson County, …
BY MARTY McGEE— Old-time singer and guitarist Fields Mac Ward was born January 23, 1911, in Buck Mountain, Grayson County, Virginia. Fields was influenced by a musically rich family: Father Crockett (ca. early 1880s—mid—1960s) was …
BY MARTY McGEE— Benjamin “Uncle” Wade Ward, born on October 15, 1892, near the town of Independence in Grayson County, Virginia, was known for his frailing or clawhammer style of banjo playing. He also had …
By JOSH BECKWORTH— Henry Whitter’s role in early country music has often been to serve as an easy punchline. The tale is often retold of Ernest Stoneman hearing Whitter’s early recordings for the first time …
