There it was, on the cover of the June issue of National Geographic magazine. Along with “Chile’s Wild Coast” and “Djenne, Eternal City of West Africa” was “Cary, North Carolina’s Big Small Town.” It was a profile not only of the town where I live, but of my very own zip code: 27513. The pictures […]
David Potorti
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David Via and Corn Tornado
Those who know mandolinist David Via from his Chris Austin Songwriter’s Contest wins at the 1997 and 2001 editions of Merlefest agree that it’s high time he had a CD release. Their prayers have been answered with It All Comes Down to a Song, a 14-tune collection featuring his band, Corn Tornado. Twelve of these […]
Posted inMusic
A Good Old Time
Ralph Epperson, founder of WPAQ-AM in Mount Airy, was riding a mule the day he decided to make a career out of radio broadcasting. That’s when he noticed that a telephone line was hanging lower than it should have been. “In our part of the world, you had a telephone system in which you would […]
Posted inMusic
Having the Touch
“As players, we aspire toward this touch,” says acoustic guitar ace Brooks Williams, “this fine line between being really rock solid on the fretboard, and being so loose that it’s like butter.” Williams is conducting a music workshop before his appearance that evening at a Swift Creek house concert in Raleigh. “Bob Dylan and Elvis […]
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Kindest cuts
While the rest of the kids were getting their oil changed over spring break, I was getting my ears lowered. I visited the guy who gave me my first haircut as a child. He was still cutting hair, one day a week, in the same upstate New York joint he’d been working in for 40 […]
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A Tune for Tommy
The jovial old-time musician who wrote about a makeout king’s backseat exploits in “The Ace,” can no longer drive. The man who sang about the last, long ride of the “Black Smoke Train,” can no longer sing. And the lonesome striver who claimed, “The gleam that’s in my eye is just tomorrow’s enterprise,” in “I’ve […]
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In the gutter
Why buy potting soil when you can make it for free in your roof gutters? That’s what I’m thinking as I scutter across the roof on my butt, leaf blower in hand, to clear the leaves out of my eaves troughs. Sure, it’s March, and everybody else did this last November. But leaves were still […]
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Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Man of Constant Sorrow
The singing voice of Ralph Stanley, who recently celebrated his 74th birthday, is frequently described as “harrowing,” “raw” and “primitive,” bearing witness to more than 50 years of use. One of the wonderful aspects of Man of Constant Sorrow is its reminder that the reigning patriarch of bluegrass music was once a younger man who, […]
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National security vouchers
Isn’t it time to privatize our nation’s biggest, most wasteful government program? One that robs huge amounts of cash from our paychecks, and can’t even guarantee our future security? An outmoded, bureaucratic program that may wind up bankrupting the economy? Isn’t it time to privatize the Pentagon? It’s easy to forget that the Pentagon is, […]
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WWWD
I don’t know about you, but I think we elected the wrong guy. I’m not talking about Bush versus Gore. I’m talking about Bush versus God. There’s a whole lot of God going on in Washington these days. He’s even got his own White House Office of “Faith Based and Community Initiatives.” And it seems […]