The Birthplace of American Music
Jeff Little’s story about the hardscrabble people of Southwest Virginia was a familiar one to the crowd at The Rex Theater in Galax, the self-proclaimed World’s Capital of Old-Time Mountain Music. As a native son, Little knew how to connect with the audience, drawing from his own family’s history and the rich musical heritage of the region. With a grin, he spun a tale about a legendary snowstorm six decades earlier, where an elderly lady on top of a hill was visited by the American Red Cross, only to be met with a witty remark about the winter being ‘pretty bad.’
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This was just the beginning of my journey along the Crooked Road, a 330-mile patchwork of highways, country roads, and blacktop that winds through the hills of Southwest Virginia. Launched two decades ago to boost tourism after the manufacturing jobs disappeared, the Crooked Road has become a lifeline for the local music scene, drawing visitors from all over the world to experience the authentic sounds of old-time, bluegrass, and country music.
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A Musical Cradle
The Crooked Road tells the story of this musical cradle, where songs and sounds from Europe and Africa commingled to create old-time music—a communal acoustic dance music that inspired bluegrass, country, and other distinctly American genres. Players like Grayson & Whitter, the Stanley Brothers, and the Carter Family took their regional sound to the rest of the world, leaving an indelible mark on the music landscape.
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According to Tim Stafford, a bluegrass musician and historian, ‘all the first-generation bluegrass people came through there, and old-time [music from] just over the hill.’ Stafford grew up across the border in Tennessee before joining Alison Krauss and Union Station, and is currently working on a tome of bluegrass history. He believes that if bluegrass had a Mount Rushmore, it would feature homegrown icons from the region.
Today, younger people are taking the tradition and fusing it with modern sounds, while preservationists are working to keep the old-time music alive. The Crooked Road is a reminder that even in a world of global connectivity, regional sounds still exist and thrive.
A Community of Music Lovers
The Crooked Road is a network of informal community jams and ticketed concerts that take place along the highway, offering a retreat into a past that is very much driving the sound of today. From the Rex Theater in Galax to the Coffee Break in Stuart, music venues and community spaces are the heart and soul of the Crooked Road.
In Floyd, a former textile town, the streets and sidewalks are packed on Sundays, as people gather at The Floyd Country Store, a hub of bluegrass and old-time music. The store, which has been around since 1910, has become a magnet and missionary for Appalachian music, with a recurring radio show and at least six performances a week.
At the store, I met Nicole Daskalakis, a 35-year-old from Connecticut who had driven down for the weekend to experience the music. She had attended the introductory jam earlier that day, where Heather Krantz and Dylan Locke taught the fundamentals of old-time music for free. As we sat rapt, listening to the music, a dancer approached us and asked what we thought. ‘This is my home,’ he said with a grin, ‘I’ve been coming here for 40 years.’
A Journey Through the Hills
As I drove the length of the Crooked Road twice in October, I was struck by the beauty of the countryside and the passion of the musicians. From the Appalachian Trail to the Blue Ridge Parkway, the road winds through some of the most mesmerizing landscapes in the country.
At the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum, I learned about the history of the region’s music and the people who made it. Many of the jams along the Crooked Road belong to a bygone era, but the music lives on in museums like the BRIM and the National Park Service-associated Blue Ridge Music Center.
