Virginia is for lovers — of bluegrass music, crafts, gorgeous scenery and friendly, hospitable people. Best of all, a visitor can take Southwest Virginia with a song and a glass of good wine.
Or just the song.
Music is the glue that binds the region. Just about everywhere — at a diner, a craft center, a theatre, or on the street — a group will be pickin’ and singin’, or strumming through an impromptu jam session.
“It’s what people do here,” says Jack Hinshelwood, director of The Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. “Music is the everyday fabric of life.”
The Crooked Road runs 330 miles through the mountains of southwestern Virginia. Part of it is U.S. Highway 58, and part of it is on state and county roads.
Along the route are 60 affiliated venues for country music festivals, weekly concerts, informal gatherings and even a radio program about the musical heritage of bluegrass, gospel and mountain music from England and Scotland with contributions from Africa, kept alive in families and communities for generations.
Bristol
Bristol, which straddles the Virginia-Tennessee state line, is the birthplace of country music. Recording sessions there in 1927 made country music available throughout the United States. Nashville came later.
The Birthplace of Country Music Museum opened in August in what was once an automobile showroom. The museum has hands-on exhibits enabling a visitor to tinker with the acoustics of a song, as if conducting his or her own recording session.
There are also films and photographs of the old-timers, and even a karaoke booth for ambitious and adventurous new timers. Visitors learn the difference between bluegrass and country and the origin of the term “hill billy” — “we’re just hill billies,” says a synthetic good ol’ boy from New York.
The Carter Family Fold lies a few miles west of Bristol, where every Saturday night a bluegrass group takes the stage to entertain the folks who come to hear authentic music and dance a little flatfooting. Flatfooting is similar to clogging, except that shoes, often with taps, are worn. The dancers include 4-year-olds and grandmothers in their 80s. It’s what Saturday night down home is all about.
The Fold is run by Rita Forrester, granddaughter of Sara Carter, one of the original three Carter Family members who were the grandparents and godparents of what we know now as country music.
Not to be missed by lovers of the Appalachian sound is the FloydFest in June, which hosts bluegrass, country, gospel, pop and other genres, along with artisans and good food in the tiny town of Floyd on the Crooked Road.
Every September, the Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion brings together string talent from around the country for three days in downtown Bristol. Music and craft festivals abound throughout the year.
Marion
History and crafts are important in this part of Virginia. Marion, named for Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox of the Revolutionary War and an early advocate of guerrilla warfare, has restored the Lincoln Theater, dating from 1929, a fine example of Art Deco Mayan revival architecture. Six large murals, restored in 2004, bring national and local history to life.
Originally a vaudeville house and then a movie theater, the Lincoln Theater is now a venue for bluegrass music. On the first Sunday of every month, “The Song of the Mountains,” a stage and television show featuring all kinds of pickin’ and singin’, is broadcast from the Lincoln on PBS stations throughout the United States.
The General Francis Marion Hotel dates from the 1920s, and was restored recently with small but well appointed rooms, and marvelous large old-fashioned bathrooms.
One of Marion’s unique specialties is the Virginia Sweetwater Distillery, where Scott Schumaker makes distinctive War Horn Whiskey and clear, legal moonshine distilled from corn.
Once a month Mr. Schumaker offers a class in making ’shine, and for $5 visitors can enjoy a taste from the still he calls “Miss Kelsey.” No worries about a raid by the sheriff.
Abingdon
Down Highway 81 in Abingdon, the Barter Theatre was established in 1933 by Robert Porterfield, a local actor who had gone to New York to seek fame and fortune. He did well enough until the Depression. He invited a handful of fellow impoverished actors to join him in Abingdon, where he set up a theater where they bartered performance for food. “Ham for Hamlet,” they called it.
Abingdon’s William King Museum has been showing traveling exhibitions since 1992. It includes artists’ studios, and showcases the work of local artists. The museum is named for William King, who made his fortune in the salt mines in nearby Saltville.
Crafts are an important part of the heritage of southwestern Virginia, both folk art and traditional crafts in wood, glass, pottery, and weaving. Many of Abingdon’s artists and craftsmen belong to the Arts Depot collective, housed in a 19th century freight station, where visitors can watch the artists at work.
Heartwood, just outside Abingdon on Highway 81, is a center for high quality craft and traditional American handmade musical instruments. There’s good local cooking and wine, too.
Good local wine, in fact, is available in many restaurants. Two good ones are the formal Tavern in Abingdon and the casual Wooden Pickle in Marion. Abingdon offers an elegant, beautifully restored The Martha Washington Hotel and Spa, built in 1832. Rooms are large and refined, and the beautiful library is a good place to enjoy a late-night glass of port. The spa offers relaxation and a sense of quiet well being.
Hungry Mother State Park offers hiking paths, cabins and a lake; the Creeper Trail, opened in 1990, was built for bike riders. There are seven bicycle shops in the tiny town of Damascus, where bikers can rent a bike, get a lift to the top of White Top Mountain, and ride down the mountain through beautiful pine forests. On the weekend after Mother’s Day, the town celebrates Appalachian Trail Days with music and food.
Surprises await almost everywhere in Southwest Virginia, and all within an afternoon’s drive from Washington.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.