Road Work: Building the Music Trail

It's not hard to understand Joe Wilson's lifelong passion. The music historian and folklorist was raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains, learned ballads from his mother, gospel from his father, guitar and fiddle from uncles and banjo from a neighbor. Wilson and Todd Christensen, head of the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, were the driving forces behind the creation of the Crooked Road. On a snowy night in January 2002, they met with representatives of 10 counties and a dozen southwest Virginia municipalities, as well as tourism and transportation officials, to brainstorm ideas, one of which was a heritage music corridor tying together the region's legacy.

The location was fitting -- the Carter Family Fold -- and the timing was good. Mountain music was experiencing a major resurgence in the wake of the Grammy-sweeping, sextuple-platinum success of the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, which reintroduced the music of the Carter Family and Ralph Stanley to a mass audience. In a way, the Crooked Road is "O Music, Where Art Thou?," a musically focused version of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the 469-mile scenic route that both transformed and linked the region. It's heritage tourism enriching an already popular Blue Ridge experience. (Wilson's book provides information on craft stores, recreation, food and lodging -- as well as two CDs with 54 recordings made between 1926 and 2006 that show how traditions have been both upheld and updated.)

Former governor Mark Warner made the Crooked Road a centerpiece of his effort to improve southwest Virginia's economy. The region may be unique in sustaining traditional music and dance, but it has suffered from a meltdown of traditional industries. For generations, Galax's best-known exports have been furniture and mountain music, but in the last year, one out of every seven people there lost jobs as two major furniture factories and a textile plant closed their doors and shifted to cheap overseas labor -- not a great way to celebrate your city's centennial. Fortunately, the music can't be outsourced.