Welcome!

Welcome to the Across the Blue Ridge blog. Stop back often for news about the show, musings about music and musicians, and notes on books, artists, and events.

My wife, Terri McMurray and I just returned from a month on the road teaching at music camps and performing – and spreading the word about Across the Blue Ridge.  Our final stop was the Summer Hoot at Ashokan Center in New York state.  There we held the banner high for roots music of the southern Appalachians. We co-hosted a banjo workshop with our fellow North Carolinian Dom Flemons, and invited Across the Blue Ridge guest scholar and performer Hank Sapoznik to join us as well. Our onstage sets included old favorites like Soldier's Joy, Skip To My Lou and Cluck Old Hen, plus some lesser-known fiddle tunes and songs.  In a way, we were a contrast to much of the roots music being performed at the festival. Having learned directly from old time players whose time is largely gone, our music has a straightforward, spare, all-acoustic sound that we intend to maintain.  Everything has its place, and we found audiences appreciating what we had to offer, partly as a break from more electrified and more highly produced acts and partly for its straightforward message from another era that will linger as long as its performers do.  And we hope to linger quite awhile yet.

That said, the roots music world is abuzz these days with exciting young performers in all genres.  Among the very interesting players and singers we encountered at the Summer Hoot were Lula Wiles and The Ladles, two young trios whose music draws on a combination of tradition, years of experience playing since childhood, and high level conservatory training.   Check them out online and through their recordings, YouTube and public appearances. We'll be featuring them, including possible interviews, on Across the Blue Ridge, this fall and early next year.