Episode 2

Synopsis

Broadcaster, writer and musician Banning Eyre embarks on a journey across the state of North Carolina to hear the stories of some of the older players and singers of traditional US music. Some can trace a direct line back to before the age of the radio and the gramophone, when old-time music - North American folk music - was a strictly oral tradition.

Banning meets 90-year-old fiddler Jo Thomson, who is perhaps the only known surviving Old Time African-American string band player. His playing and stories capture a period of time before this music was delineated on race grounds, of a time when both black and white string bands flourished.

Sat out on her porch on top of a mountain near Mars Hill, eighth-generation ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams tells stories and sings songs as her grandmother taught her, out in the open, singing to the fireflies and crickets. Her ballads, which tell of knights and ladies and boats at sea, hail from the 'old country' - England, Ireland and Scotland. Passed down through singing generations in the little settlement of Sodom where she grew up, she preserves the haunting and often macabre song of her ancestors, and is today passing it on to her children and grandchildren.

And Banning talks to 89-year-old Benton Flippen and his Smokey Valley boys, remnants of a past age and of the heyday of old-time string band music, having learnt their tunes at the knee of their parents and grandparents.

World Routes: An Appalachian Roadtrip (part 2)
Presenter: Banning Eyre
Producer: Peter Meanwell
Sound Engineer: Martin Appleby

Saturday 24th October 2009

Opening sequence recorded at Olympia Restaurant, Mt Airy, NC
Music: Cornbread & Butterbeans (Carolina Sunshine Trio)

Cotton Eyed Joe
Benton Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys
Benton Flippen (fiddle), Frank Bode (guitar and vocals), Verlen Clifton (mandolin and vocals), Chester MacMillan (guitar), Andy Edmonds (banjo)
BBC recording at the home of Benton Flippen, Mt Airy, North Carolina, USA: 7th June 2009

Fortune
Benton Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys
BBC recording at the home of Benton Flippen, Mt Airy, North Carolina, USA: 7th June 2009

Interview with Benton Flippen and Andy Edmonds

Cackling Hen
Benton Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys
BBC recording at the home of Benton Flippen, Mt Airy, North Carolina, USA: 7th June 2009

Interview with Benton Flippen and Andy Edmonds

June Apple
Benton Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys
BBC recording at the home of Benton Flippen, Mt Airy, North Carolina, USA: 7th June 2009

A Soldier and a Lady
Rick Ward (fretless banjo)
BBC recording at the workshop of Rick Ward, Beech Mountain, Watauga County, North Carolina, USA: 8th June 2009

Interview with musician and instrument maker Rick Ward

The Bald Headed End of the Broom (from the singing of Lee Monroe Presnell)
Rick Ward (voice)
BBC recording at the workshop of Rick Ward, Beech Mountain, Watauga County, North Carolina, USA: 8th June 2009

The Daemon Lover (from the singing of Dellie Chandler Norton)
Sheila Kay Adams (voice)
BBC recording at the home of Sheila Kay Adams, Mars Hill, North Carolina, USA: 8th June 2009

Interview with ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams

The Farmer’s Cursed Wife (from the singing of Inez Chandler)
Sheila Kay Adams (voice)
BBC recording at the home of Sheila Kay Adams, Mars Hill, North Carolina, USA: 8th June 2009

Interview with ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams

Pretty Saro (from the singing of Mary Sands)
Sheila Kay Adams (voice)
BBC recording at the home of Sheila Kay Adams, Mars Hill, North Carolina, USA: 8th June 2009

Georgie Buck
Joe Thompson (fiddle and voice)
Bob Carlin (banjo)
BBC recording at the home of Joe Thompson, Mebane, North Carolina, USA: 10th June 2009

Interview with fiddler Joe Thompson and banjo picker Bob Carlin

Goin’ Down the Road Feeling Bad
Joe Thompson (fiddle and voice)
Bob Carlin (banjo)
BBC recording at the home of Joe Thompson, Mebane, North Carolina, USA: 10th June 2009

Interview with fiddler Joe Thompson and banjo picker Bob Carlin

Pumpkin Pie
Joe Thompson (fiddle and voice)
Bob Carlin (banjo)
BBC recording at the home of Joe Thompson, Mebane, North Carolina, USA: 10th June 2009

Interview with fiddler Joe Thompson and banjo picker Bob Carlin

Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone
Joe Thompson (voice)
Bob Carlin (banjo)
BBC recording at the home of Joe Thompson, Mebane, North Carolina, USA: 10th June 2009

Broadcast

1. Sat 24 Oct 2009
   15:00
   BBC Radio 3