© 2025

Winston-Salem News
Greensboro News
High Point News
Boone/High Country News
Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
DONATE
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Across the Blue Ridge #22 - Mountaineer musicians, banjo pickers and today’s singers

By Paul Brown
Published May 27, 2016 at 1:49 PM EDT
West Virginia Dep’t. of Culture & History
Aunt Jenny Wilson sang, played banjo and thought a lot about life. She’s one of several mountaineer musicians on this week’s Across the Blue Ridge.

This week we go back to 1972, and recordings of Aunt Jenny Wilson of Logan County, West Virginia.  She was a joyful and powerful singer and banjo player, not to mention something of a philosopher on the topics of music and learning. She tells music documenters of her feeling that music is for everyone to share rather than for individuals to own. She recalls verses to traditional songs, and sings an old ballad unaccompanied.  Also on the show, mountain musicians of Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia.  And the Rosin Sisters have a new album out.  We listen to it in the context of evolving music traditions and sharing.

Episode 22 Playlist

  1. Sally Ann – Norman Edmonds & The Old Timers
    Norman Edmonds & The Old Timers Vol. 1
    Field Recorders Collective FRC
     
  2. Roving Gambler – Norman Edmonds & The Old Timers
    Norman Edmonds & The Old Timers Vol. 1
    Field Recorders Collective FRC
     
  3. The Canary Bird – Aunt Jenny Wilson
    Aunt Jenny Wilson
    Field Recorders Collective FRC
     
  4. Elk River Boys – Aunt Jenny Wilson
    Aunt Jenny Wilson
    Field Recorders Collective FRC
     
  5. Down the Road – Doc & Merle Watson
    Home Sweet Home
    Sugar Hill 1998
     
  6. Worried Blues – Doc & Merle Watson
    Home Sweet Home
    Sugar Hill 1998
     
  7. Home Sweet Home – Doc & Merle Watson
    Home Sweet Home
    Sugar Hill 1998
     
  8. BREAK 1
    Sally Ann – Earl Scruggs
    Foggy Mountain Banjo
    County Records 1995
     
  9. Long Time Gone – The Rosin Sisters
    It's All Your Fault
    Independent Release 2016
     
  10. Lonesome Pine Special – The Rosin Sisters
    It's All Your Fault
    Independent Release 2016
     
  11. In The Jailhouse Now – Jimmie Rodgers
    Essential Jimmie Rodgers
    Sony Legacy 1997
     
  12. You Don't Know My Mind – Jimmy Martin
    You Don't Know My Mind
    Rounder 1992
     
  13. I Knew Love Had Found Me – Larry Stephenson
    Larry Stephenson Webco Classics Vol. 5
    Pinecastle 1994
     
  14. Bile Them Cabbage Down – Bobby Taylor
    Pickin' In The Parlor
    Heritage Records 2012
     
  15. BREAK 2
    Radio Wassoulou – Jayme Stone
    The Other Side of the Air
    Import 2013
     
  16. The Girl I Left In Sunny Tennessee – Wade & Julia Mainer
    In The Land Of Melody
    June Appal 1995
     
  17. Swing The Lady Home – Art Stamper
    Goodbye Girls I'm Going To Boston
    County Records 2000
     
  18. Cumberland Gap – Morgan Sexton
    Shady Grove
    June Appal 1995
     
  19. Coal Creek March – Giles Lephew
    Field Recording
     
  20. Old Reuben – Tommy Jarrell
    Come And Go With Me
    County Records 1999
Tags
Music & Culture Aunt Jenny WilsonRosin SistersACTB
Paul Brown
Former 88.5 WFDD News Director Paul Brown founded Across the Blue Ridge at WFDD in the late 1980s. It was an instant hit, and was broadcast on WFDD for more than a decade until Paul left to become an executive editor, producer, reporter, and world newscaster at NPR in Washington, DC. Now Paul is back in his beloved Blue Ridge region, his journalism and storytelling skills honed better than ever. He's ready to present more music, share discussion with more interesting characters, and be your friend and guide in discovery. Paul is actively involved in today's acoustic music scene, crisscrossing the region and the country as a teacher, performer, and interviewer.
See stories by Paul Brown

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate