BY JOSH BECKWORTH— The jam session has become a common event in modern Southwest Virginia. Community centers, general stores, and libraries regularly hold jam sessions as a way of both bringing together local musicians and …
BY JOSH BECKWORTH— Henry Whitter and Fiddlin’ John Carson’s initial recording sessions in 1923 set off a shockwave in popular music. Record producers, suddenly aware of an untapped demand for ‘authentic’ folk musicians, began scrambling …
BY MARTY McGEE— The Hill Billies, an early old-time string band, radio and vaudeville act, was organized in Galax, Virginia, in the mid-1920s. The bands’ original members were fiddler Alonzo Elvis “Tony” Alderman of Carroll …
