If you’re a fan of country music, you might’ve heard of the 1927 recording sessions that happened in Bristol, Tennessee. Those sessions have been called 'The Big Bang of Country Music,' as they featured the very first recordings from artists that would go on to major fame, like Jimmie Rodgers, and The Carter Family. But according to a recent article from the National Endowment for the Humanities, of the 50 some-odd musicians who recorded in Bristol for those sessions, only about a dozen were women. And so almost from the very beginning of what we know of as country music, the stories of many of the women who have played a huge role in it—playing it, pushing it forward, passing it on—have been overlooked.

To help shine a light on some of these hugely-influential & deeply-talented women, back in the 1990’s, we here at WMMT produced a multi-part documentary series, Southern Songbirds, which profiles some of the women artists who have been integral to country & old-time music over the years. Produced by Rachel Anne Goodman, each episode of Southern Songbirds focuses on a different artist, and in this edition of Mountain Talk, we bring you two of those episodes, each featuring visits with unique, formidable, and influential Appalachian banjo players: Ola Belle Reed, of western North Carolina, and Matokie Slaughter, of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Back in 1995, WMMT put together a remarkable—and comprehensive—14-part radio series spotlighting different women writers from all across Appalachia. We called it 'Tell it on the Mountain,' and each episode of the series features extended visits with mountain writers, including readings, interviews, and biographical notes. These shows were produced by then-WMMT producer Maxine Kenny, and the series was hosted by the incomparable Nikki Giovanni.

And this week on Mountain Talk, we hear two episodes from the Tell it on the Mountain series: first, we visit with West Virginia novelist & fiction writer Denise Giardina (author of the novels Storming Heaven, The Unquiet Earth, & more); and then, with the novelist & fiction writer Sharyn McCrumb, of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (author of the 'Ballad' series of Appalachian-set novels, among many other works).

And for a quick PS: while these episodes were originally just released on cassette tape, Appalshop will be digitally re-releasing this whole series soon. So, keep an ear out! As a whole, it’s an incredible document, and a real treasure trove of readings and reflections from a massively-talented gaggle of mountain writers.

(Music this week includes selections from from Paul David Smith & Will Keys, from the June Appal Records release "Banjer Days"; and from Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal release "Mountain State Music.")

“I was losing all kinds of weight, and didn’t know why,” says Josh Stanley, of Letcher County, in this episode of WMMT’s Mountain Talk. It turned out he had type 2 diabetes—with an A1C, or blood glucose level, above 14, which is dangerously high—and hadn’t known it. “And I’ve only got one functioning kidney, too," Josh says. "I didn’t know it affected your kidneys. I didn’t know anything about any of that.”

And here in the mountains, sadly, Josh is not alone in having gotten a surprise diagnosis of diabetes. East Kentucky has higher rates of type 2 than the state and national averages, and many of those diagnosed don’t actually know they’re diabetic until they get the news. And then, if you do get diagnosed, it can be hard to know how to take the first step— especially if you don’t have a ton of knowledge about how diabetes actually works in your body, or all of the different ways it can affect your health.

To help raise awareness about type 2 in our region, for the past several years, WMMT has been producing an ongoing storytelling series about diabetes here in East Kentucky. Called Prevent Diabetes EKY, this series has featured a wide range of local people sharing their stories of managing type 2, including what’s worked for them, what’s been tricky, and what it’s all felt like.

And in this episode of Mountain Talk, we hear from a patchwork of nine local voices who we've spoken to for this project, all of whom have type 2. We start with highlights from a diabetes listening session we held recently at the Hemphill Community Center in Letcher County, Ky., which features comments from local residents Patricia Sturgill, Josh Stanley, and Anna Bates (pictured, L-R). Then, we hear a selection of clips from across the past couple years of our project, featuring six voices from all over the region sharing about their diabetes journeys.

As a final note, if all of these interviewees have anything in common, it’s urging listeners to stay on top of your health: to go to the doctor, to get your A1C levels tested, to get your eyes & kidneys checked. You could be in Josh’s boat of having diabetes, and not even knowing it. But, as our interview subjects also say in this show, even if you do have diabetes, there are so many ways to control it, and to keep it from controlling you.

As a FINAL final note, for more stories like this, check out our project website: www.preventdiabeteseky.org

(MUSIC in this show comes from The Luke Smathers String Band, from the June Appal Records release "Mountain Swing"; from Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal release "Mountain State Music"; and from Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)

“Just facing it,” says Perry County resident Jenny Williams, when asked what it took for her to take the first step towards managing type 2 diabetes after she'd been diagnosed. “Just facing the fact that I’m not the only one that’s diagnosed with this. And life goes on. You’ve just got to own up [to it], and do what you’ve got to do.”

As part of WMMT’s ongoing storytelling series Prevent Diabetes EKY, we recently attended a monthly diabetes education class put on by ARH in Perry County. There, we spoke with three local residents, who all have diabetes (Jenny Williams, Evelyn Wood, and Nina Patrick, all pictured here), about what it’s been like for them to manage type 2 in the mountains— what’s been tricky, what’s been helpful, and what it’s all felt like. And we begin this edition of WMMT’s Mountain Talk with a selection of their comments.

Then, the very first family string band to ever cut a record of their music just so happened to come from right over the mountain from us here in Whitesburg: the Powers Family band of Scott County, Virginia. For the second half of the show, we hear a profile of the Powers Family—particularly sisters Orpha, Carrie, and Ada Powers— through an installment of the former WMMT series Southern Songbirds, which documents & spotlights women in country & traditional music.

(MUSIC in this show, apart from tunes from the Powers Family in the 2nd half, comes from: John McCutcheon, from the June Appal Records release “The Wind that Shakes the Barley”; from Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal release “Mountain State Music”; and from Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)

“I think the women made up the folksongs,” says West Virginia storyteller & ballad-singer Phyllis Marks, in this edition of WMMT’s Mountain Talk. “Because I think the men was out horsing around. And the women probably had to rock the cradle and churn their butter with one hand and sing to the other children... and they’d hear these stories, and they’d put a tune to ‘em.”

And this episode of our show features extended visits with two multitalented Appalachian women, both of whom have served as vital tradition-bearers of mountain culture. First, we hear from western North Carolina ballad-singer, storyteller, musician, and songwriter Sheila Kay Adams, through a series of clips from her performance at our annual Seedtime on the Cumberland festival in 1992. Then, we visit with the one-of-a-kind West Virginia storyteller and ballad-singer Phyllis Marks, through an episode of the former WMMT series Southern Songbirds, which features interviews with Phyllis alongside recordings of her singing & telling stories alike.

(MUSIC in this show, apart from performances by Sheila Kay Adams & Phyllis Marks, includes selections by The Luke Smathers String Band, from the June Appal Records release "Mountain Swing"; by Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal release "Mountain State Music"; and by Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)

Every summer, since 1987, we here at Appalshop have put on a one-of-a-kind community festival of mountain music & art right here in Whitesburg, which we call Seedtime on the Cumberland. In honor of this year’s festival, which took place this past weekend—and which was our 40th (!) annual Seedtime—for this episode of Mountain Talk, we put together some memorable Seedtime performances from over the years.


Now, this show is by *no* means definitive: when you put on a festival like this for 40 years, you’re going to have a lot of amazing stuff to choose from. But in this episode, you'll hear some memorable Seedtime performances from the Appalshop Archive that happened to recently catch our eye (and/or our ear): clips from Morgan Sexton's first-ever (!) public performance at Seedtime in 1988; Jean & Edna Ritchie, singing together in 1994, and bringing us some exceptionally special sibling harmony; renowned Piedmont Blues guitar masters Etta Baker & John Jackson, who took the Seedtime stage together in 1997; clips from The Local Honeys' set from 2016; a storytelling performance by Angie DeBord from 2014; Ethel Caffie-Austin in 1991; Nimrod & Molly Workman in 1989; and Rich & the Po’ Folk in 2014.

As a final note, many of the Seedtime sets that these performances are drawn from are available to hear (or watch), in full, and for free, at www.appalshoparchive.org. And as a FINAL final note, thank you, so deeply, to everyone who joined us at Seedtime this year. We had an incredible time, and we hope you, did, too.

(Apart from Seedtime performances, music in this show includes selections from: Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal Records release "Mountain State Music"; and by Don Bikoff, from the Free Music Archive.)

So, we of course just recently held our primary elections here in Kentucky. And while things have been calmer here, it’s been a tumultuous primary season so far across the South, especially in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ‘Callais’ ruling that significantly weakened the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965—and which came smack in the middle of primary election season across much of the country. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, states across the South quickly began making moves to try to change their congressional voting maps at the very last minute, with the state of Louisiana even going so far as to throw out more than 40,000 primary votes that had already been legally cast. As a result, many Southern voters have been thrown into limbo about which district they’re in, and who their candidates are.

But in honor of primary season here in east Kentucky, we start this edition of Mountain Talk with a portrait of a local election from days gone by: the 1981 Republican Primary for County Judge-Executive in Leslie County. That race was profiled in the Appalshop film 'The Big Lever,' directed by Frances Morton, and today we hear a radio adaptation of that film, which follows the race in Leslie Co. between C. Allen Muncy and George Wooton. (As a whole, the film documents a fascinating, and colorful, era in mountain politics, and you can stream the whole thing, for free, on Appalshop’s Youtube channel.)

Then, in honor of our 40th (!) annual Seedtime on the Cumberland festival coming up from June 5th-7th here in Whitesburg, we bring you two memorable performances from Seedtimes past. First, from the 1993 Seedtime Festival, we hear from West Virginia singer & songwriter Elaine Purkey, performing “I’m Just an Old Chunk of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be a Diamond Someday)" and “If the Rich Paid Taxes.”

Then, from the 1988 Seedtime Festival, we hear a ‘Jack Tale’ from the master mountain storyteller Ray Hicks, of western North Carolina. The story he tells is called “Hardy Hardhead,” and it’s about three brothers who try to outsmart a witch to win the hand of a young lady, as well as the peculiar cast of Appalachian characters that Jack assembles to help him try. Finally, Ray closes the show with a barnburner of a performance on the harmonica.

(MUSIC in this show, apart from performances by Ray Hicks & Elaine Purkey, comes from: Luke Smathers, from the June Appal Records release "Mountain Swing"; Glenn Jones & Laura Baird, from the Free Music Archive, & Don Bikoff, also from the Free Music Archive.)

Last month, a chemical leak once again rattled the community of Institute, West Virginia. On April 22nd, a leak at a plant which processes silver caused a violent chemical gas reaction which killed two people, and sent dozens more to the hospital. And after the leak, a shelter-in-place order was issued to the community for more than five hours, during which time (not to mention afterwards) local residents had to wonder about the safety of the air they were breathing, and of the water coming out of the tap.

And, if any part of this story sounds familiar, that’s because, sadly, it is. The town of Institute has been the scene of multiple scary, and stressful, chemical spills over the years: in 2008, another chemical explosion there killed two people, and injured eight more. And back in 1985, a cloud of gas leaked from what was then the Union Carbide plant in Institute— and this leak came just months after the horrific leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, had made global headlines by killing at least some 16,000 people, and injuring tens of thousands more.

And knowing what had just happened in India, when this 1985 leak happened in Institute, it was understandably a tense time for the community. This time was documented in the 1991 Appalshop Film “Chemical Valley,” and to begin Mountain Talk today, filmmaker Mimi Pickering brings us a radio adaptation of that film.

Then, we hear selections from a panel held last month at the University of Kentucky about the history and future of Appalachia’s economy, a discussion which was called “Shifting Power in Rural America.” In these clips, Appalachian scholars John Gaventa & Gabe Schwartzman discuss land ownership in our region, and how that has historically helped determine who has power in the mountains— and how all of that might be changing now. Finally, we close the show with an episode of the former WMMT radio documentary series “Southern Songbirds,” produced by Rachel Goodman, about the life and music of the great WV singer & songwriter Hazel Dickens.

(MUSIC in this show, apart from the Hazel Dickens tunes in the 2nd half, comes from: Tommy Hunter, from the June Appal Records release "Deep in Tradition"; Glenn Jones & Laura Baird, from the Free Music Archive; and Don Bikoff, also from the Free Music Archive.)

If you’ve listened to any true crime podcasts recently, or if you’ve watched one of those Netflix shows like “The Making of a Murderer,” or “Should I Marry a Murderer,” or “The Murder Next door,” or… well, there are lots of options in this genre on Netflix. But if you’ve taken in true crime storytelling of ANY kind recently, in a way, you’re participating in just the latest version of what’s actually a really old form of entertainment, especially here in the mountains: the murder ballad.

And murder ballads, songs which depict murder stories, have local roots going back at least hundreds of years to the early colonists in Appalachia, and before that, to the British Isles (among other places), and they remain a significant part of the Appalachian musical tradition today.

Our very own Chad Hunter, who’s the director of the Appalshop Archive, put together a whole radio program about murder ballads for WMMT back in 2006. And today on Mountain Talk, we bring you a version of that show, which features a rich mixture of recordings of murder ballads from across the years, as well as the backgrounds & true-life stories behind these ballads, many of which had their roots in real happenings. Among the tunes heard in this show are “Pretty Polly,” “Omie Wise,” “The Murder of the Lawson Family” (who are pictured in our header image), and more, performed by artists like Morgan Sexton, Doc Watson, and Dock Boggs, among many others.

(MUSIC in this show, apart from the tunes introduced by Chad over the course of the show, includes selections from the Dutch Cove String Band, from the June Appal Records release “Sycamore Tea,” and from Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal release “Mountain State Music.”)

April was National Poetry Month, and we celebrated all month long here on WMMT’s Mountain Talk, with readings & conversations with Appalachian writers, past and present. But for this episode, which aired the last week of April, we decided we couldn’t let the month go by without a visit with WMMT’s very own poet laureate: Jim Webb.  

Perhaps better known to many listeners as Wiley Quixote, Jim Webb was a fixture on WMMT going back to some of our earliest days on the air in 1985; first as a programmer, and then also as a longtime staffer, working for decades to help run this radio station—and in a one-of-a-kind way.  We won’t even try to sum up everything about Jim, because that’s impossible, but in addition to his countless contributions to WMMT, and his larger-than-life presence in our community, Jim was also, for most all of his life, a poet. A book of Jim’s poems, Get in, Jesus, was published in 2013, and after the book came out, Jim did a series of readings from the book all over the region. One of those readings happened in February of 2014, in Covington, Ky., and for the first half of Mountain Talk today, we bring you a set of clips from that reading.

Then, we head across Letcher County to the Blackey Public Library, which, back in the 1990’s, held a series of readings featuring local writers, called the Blackey Writers’ Circuit. Back then, we here at WMMT aired a series, hosted by Artie Anne Bates, that featured clips from those readings. Today, via the Appalshop Archive, we bring you an episode from this series, from back in 1994. In addition to the aforementioned Jim Webb, this episode also includes readings from the writers Jenny Galloway Collins, and Gurney Norman.

(MUSIC in this show includes selections from: The Metropolitan Blues All-Stars, from the album “Hillbilly Nation,” and from Andrew Boarman, from the June Appal Records release “Mountain State Music.”)