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The Center for Cultural Preservation (Hendersonville) presents an important forum called "Historic Floods and Landslides - What Have We Learned?", on February 15th. The Center's Executive Director, David Weintraub, sat down with WNCW to discuss what's planned for the forum. David talks about Western North Carolina's great flood of 1916 and what occurred with Helene on Sept. 27, 2024.

Traditional North Carolina music and Appalachia has deep roots that belong to many family trees. In this episode, we uncover the musical history of the Shuffler Family.

The Junior Appalachian Musicians program, more commonly known as JAM, is an after-school program for primarily grades 4-8, with some students carrying on afterward as mentors. The program began in Sparta, NC, with the Alleghany JAM in 2005 to bring music into the school systems and continue to educate students in traditional Appalachian music and instruments. Supported by the NC Arts Council and others, the program is now a successful non-profit program across seven states with 65 affiliates and 205 teachers: West Virginia, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

Citizen Vinyl is Asheville’s own vinyl record-producing facility. It lives in the former Citizen-Times newspaper building. The historic building was designed and built in 1938-1939, and it became the home for two newspapers and a radio station. In 2019, Citizen Vinyl moved into the first floor, mezzanine, and third floor to create spaces for recording and manufacturing space, as well as an event area with a small bar/cafe and shop.

"The Flood: Music for Manna" is available online for song downloads with proceeds going toward Asheville's Manna Foodbank. Like many businesses and homeowners across Western North Carolina, Manna experienced damages and losses due to Hurricane Helene. Project Producer Guy Smith and artists Jay Brown and Josh Pierce were our guests.

WUNC Environment Reporter, Celeste Gracia, sat down with WNCW to talk about her story, "PFAS Pollution Is Hurting Some Small N.C. Businesses And A Lack Of Regulations Makes It Worse". P-FAS, Per and Polyfluoroalkyl-substances, are chemicals that resist grease, oil, water, and heat. Celeste talked with businesses that have become victims of PFAS and what state legislators are doing about it.

Some of the most prominent musicians in North Carolina were co-workers. Furniture, paper, and textiles were products that originated from mills across the state in the early 20th century. However, music was also a byproduct of the mills, as individuals like Charlie Poole, Roy Hall, Tommy Magnus, and the Martin family met at work and played together after business hours.

Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) is revered as one of the most influential and respected guitar players in the history of traditional music. Originally hailing from Deep Gap, NC, Doc was a self-taught harmonica, banjo, and guitar player. He is known for his work in multiple music genres, including bluegrass, folk, gospel, country, and old-time.

Wayne Erbsen has studied, played, taught, and written about traditional music for over 50 years. We talked to him about his new book, Southern Mountain Music: The Collected Writings of Wayne Erbsen, a collection of articles he wrote about legendary musicians from across the bluegrass and old-time music scenes. He started playing guitar and banjo in his native Southern California as a teen and arrived in Southern Appalachia in the 1970s.

Most folks don’t think of the piano as an instrument in traditional music, but that never stopped Jeff Little from playing throughout his musical career. His introduction to piano came at a very young age in his father’s music store in Boone. Jerrell Little, Doc Watson, Wayne Henderson, and others gave Jeff the lessons he would use to carry him throughout his musical career. Listen to this episode of Down the Road to learn more about Jeff Little’s story.