A Different Part of Appalachia

Due to predicted bad weather, I ended up returning to Green Bank yesterday instead of on Saturday. I am not exactly happy about this. I didn't get to say goodbye to several people, and was hoping for a last hurrah, either in the form of a late-night jam, a Kentucky road adventure, moonshine, or all of the above (I'm just kidding about the moonshine, Mom). Right now my inner-selfish-child is saying: "It better snow at least a foot!"

Over the next few posts I'm going to kind of decompress and write about some things that I left out. Here are just a few thoughts that I've been having.

1. Most ironic sight: White pick-up trucks covered in black dust with "Friends of Coal" bumper stickers. And I saw at least two.

2. Accents: Why are Americans biased against accents? We enjoy talking about our backgrounds and where our ancestors came from, but the minute someone opens their mouth and out comes a strong accent, we write the person off as being stupid. While using incorrect English along with that accent doesn't add a lot to a person's credibility, and it's important that other people are able to understand you, I see nothing wrong with regional accents. More on this later.

3. Coal: I am firmly against mountain top removal. And I find it hard to believe that people said that Obama was the anti-Christ, when there are men like Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy, in this world. The business practices, especially in relation to hiring and firing, as well as the entire process of surface mining show an utter disregard for the people, land, and culture of Appalachia. The switch from underground to surface mining has left many people jobless. I don't think that we should be dependent on coal for energy, and don't believe the "clean coal" idea, but I also don't think that we should bring a swift end to the entire coal industry. The only idea that I have is to stop doing mountain top removal, put the people who are currently working at MTR sites into work building wind farms or doing underground mining until we can wean ourselves completely off coal.

But I'm just an idealistic enviro, I guess. What I've seen from spending time in Eastern Kentucky is that this issue isn't black and white. You have people who can't drink the water, people who are being fed information that mine-related job loss is caused by "enviros" (to quote Don Blankenship), and people who are completely oblivious. I honestly feel deeply uncomfortable with direct action protests, but I feel even more uncomfortable with violence against these protestors, and the coal companies that break the law. I'm proud of myself, because instead of just jumping to the "coal is evil" conclusion that I feel is pushed upon people at Oberlin, I tried to gain a more informed opinion by reading, watching, and talking with people who are affected by the coal industry every day. Ever since coming to Oberlin I have found myself playing Devil's conservative Advocate because sometimes I feel like there is a lack of debate. I'm sure it's as obnoxious as hell. But this is a topic that I'm glad I questioned. Because now I am much better informed, and hopefully can find a way that I can contribute to help my home state out of this vicious cycle of exploitation.

4. The Pick and Bow after-school program is the greatest. It puts rental instruments in the hands of middle schoolers, gives them kind, patient, funny, and incredibly tolerant instructors who are incidentally excellent musicians. Sure half of the guitar players actually want to play metal or punk. Sure the kids have the attention span of a goldfish and make fart jokes and run around, but they are fascinating. Like the kid that played a few chords and then suggested that we talk out our differences. I learned a lot from trying to help them learn. I have been inspired to practice more and get better at instruments so I can actually teach. Showing people how to play musical instruments is so rewarding.

I also had a blast jamming afterwards with the guys who teach the program. I'm definitely not really good enough at banjo to play it with other people yet, but I was pushed out of my comfort zone and learned a lot from it. I even sang "Mole in the Ground" in my awful, terrible, banjo playing voice in front of people I had known for less than a month. Old time music is powerful.

Visiting, Flow, and Basketball

I am currently watching the UK basketball game (since being here I have developed a slight affection for Kentucky basketball) and taking a break from knitting. Here's what I've been up to:

I visit people now! This weekend I went to Dugannon, Virginia where some of the people I work with live on an old farm by the Clinch River. We went hiking, cooked a delicious meal, and played a lot of music. Several families own houses on the farm and spend time there when they can. It was beautiful, and so nice to have other people cook for me. I learned how to make risotto and learned a couple of Kentucky banjo tunes.

Then yesterday evening I went to visit a friend who lives in Knott County, on what might be the highest concentration of musical talent in a couple acre radius in Kentucky. Okay, I probably exaggerate. But the farm is owned by George Gibson, one of the local old time music greats, and the people living in the houses there currently not only run the Pick and Bow after school program, but are members of several old time bands and spend much of their time playing music. When we are much older, they will be the old time music greats. They already are.

I finally got to participate in the Pick and Bow program, and actually ended up helping teach guitar (something that I am highly under-qualified to do, considering I haven't touched a guitar in about a year and a half). The kids liked my "Easter Bunny Got Drunk After Easter" rhyme for remembering the names of the strings.

While in Virginia, I was told to pick up a banjo and show my hosts what I could play. Uhhh... pressure.... I am very shy about playing by myself, much less playing banjo, an instrument that I love, yet continue to be stymied by, by myself. But it turned into a jam session of sorts. I played banjo, with a fiddle and a guitar. And while it was a bit rough on my part, I didn't get too lost, and learned a couple new tunes. Later, while jamming Spotted Pony on my bass, I achieved flow (Ethnomusicology Participatory Music terminology alert!!!). But if you've ever played music with other people, or done anything you really enjoy, you know what I mean. It's when you get completely lost in the music, communicating through notes in a tune. And it's a beautiful beautiful experience.

But back to the game. And back to enjoying my last days in Kentucky.

Wait, You Mean I Only Have A Week Left?

One thing about the coal industry:

Last night I watched the debate between Don Blankenship (CEO of Massey Energy) and Robert Kennedy about the future of the coal industry in Appalachia (WV in particular). Let me just say that it was excellent, and it is a shame that more people inside and outside of Appalachia didn't see it. I will refrain from stating any opinions except that it was the best debate I have ever seen, and possibly will be the debate of my lifetime.

Skills:

I recently learned how to use Adobe Audition, and have been doing sound editing on cds of concerts of the Cowan Creek Music School, a workshop that sounds sort of like Letcher County's Allegheny Echoes. I'm learning how to take out the "p pops," change sound levels and make the recordings into short radio programs. I get to listen to great concerts and all the banter, make them sound even better by removing annoying tongue clicks, raising soft voices, and cutting out people dropping things. My inner perfectionist is singing right now.

I have come to accept the fact that I probably won't finish getting meta-data for the entire music library. I am on Local Bluegrass right now, about halfway through the entire database, and have a week left. And you'd better believe I won't spend my last week at Appalshop wading through it. It is hard for me to not finish something I started though. I think this just means I will have to come back.

People:

I have made an effort not to talk about people or mention individuals in this blog. In a small town, people talk about other people enough without me adding to it. I have been made to feel very welcome to Whitesburg by many people. I like small towns, and I like this one partly because this is not my small town, and therefore, people don't know all of my business (well actually they do, but they don't have information about me from nearly two decades to compare it to, like the people in Pocahontas County do).

Fun:

Summit City Open Mic Night. Heck yes. So when I went this time, I got so caught up in talking that I forgot to play. I actually forgot to play. Although I did here some new jokes that some of the old timers told, which is an equally valid part of Appalachian culture. It's great meeting people who are closer to my age who care as much about Appalachian culture and music as I do, and want to talk about it as much as I do. I know a lot of other young people who feel similarly from previous music experiences (I almost typed my previous life... and that is sort of how it feels to me right now), but we didn't necessarily sit down and talk about it for hours.

I'm not trying to belittle anyone's religious experiences by this comparison, but I truly feel like I have made some kind of pilgrimage and Appalshop is Mecca. Steven Colbert's recent show talked about Mountain top removal and called Appalachians the one remaining group that everyone feels comfortable making fun of. And that is very true. I have met many people who could be poster children for political correctness, who would never make homophobic, racist or sexist comments, or misuse the word oppression, yet have no qualms about making hillbilly jokes.

I find myself wishing I had been born a couple years earlier, not so I could drink beer at Summit City while having these conversations, but so I could have met some of the older West Virginia musicians like Woody Simmons who are no longer with us. It seems like many of them were dying by the time I stopped thinking that old time music was lame. I will just have to spend as much time as possible with the ones who are still around.

School:

I also ended up talking to someone who had spent a good deal of time in Oberlin but not as a student about the school. We spent a long time talking about what a weird place it is. And I love Oberlin and the conversation made me miss it, but Oberlin is a really weird place. The Oberlin bubble really messes with your concept of the world, and the fact that the school is in the middle of what is actually a pretty impoverished area of small towns makes it even stranger.

I'm not going to lie, I am not looking forward to going back to college. And I definitely never thought that I would want to be one of those people. You know the ones. They leave college after a couple of semesters because they don't really feel like they are doing anything worthwhile for the world there. I have a couple of friends who did this, and it sounds like they are doing pretty well. I'm not going to leave school, because I know that for the kind of work that I think I want to do, a college education is incredibly valuable. So for the next 5 semesters (the fact that it is only 5 used to scare me, but I'm not so sure anymore), I am going to work on finishing my psychology major, get a radio show, take classes that will give me skills to be a kick-ass non-profit worker (in my mind that includes Econ, finishing statistics, more politics classes, and a few more paper-heavy classes), and if I have the time between that, finding a job or volunteer somewhere that will put me in contact with people who are not 18-22. I wish I could muster up more enthusiasm for returning to school. At this point, I am the most excited about seeing my friends again and not having to cook for myself all the time. But I think I will feel differently once I am back. I didn't want to go home, and I was fine there. I didn't want to go to Kentucky, and I'm having an amazing experience. If this pattern continues and I can adjust my attitude, this will be the best semester ever.

But at the moment, I don't really want to go back.

Listen to Deep in Tradition at 1 pm tomorrow! (oh and this post contains another rant or two)

Once upon a time, about 4 years ago, I thought I wanted to be a journalist. This desire has since faded the way of my desires to become a hairdresser, a justice on the World Court, a veterinarian, and governor of West Virginia. But working for a radio station is pretty fun. Could it be that I am drifting back into the route of communications?

I visited my friend at Berea College this weekend. Berea was modeled after Oberlin (Learning and Labor signs are all over campus), but it is different in many ways, mainly in that students must not only be very smart to go there, but they must also demonstrate financial need. Once they are at Berea, they must not only keep their grades up, but work a job to help pay for their tuition, because Berea is completely FREE. My friend is majoring in an academic field, and also working in Berea's pottery studio. She goes to class, does homework, plays music, hangs out with friends, and throws at the pottery wheel for work almost every day. It is unfortunate that one of the ways Berea is similar to Oberlin is that it is having financial difficulty.

http://www.berea.edu/

I went to a Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremony at Fleming-Neon Baptist Church today. It was hosted by a community group in Letcher County. It was great to see a bunch of people black and white (because until leaving Letcher County and visiting Berea this weekend, I hadn't seen a single person who was not white in Kentucky) packed into this tiny church to celebrate the day with people sharing their memories, music, and love for one another. It was a bit more church-y than I had expected, but it was a good way to spend the morning and feel like a part of a community.

I have been having trouble sleeping. It isn't like the other times I've had trouble sleeping because of stress, excitement, or over-caffeination. It's because I've been reading and learning about the coal industry and have been so pissed off at coal companies (and Don Blankenship in particular) to get to sleep. The more I learn about MTR, the more it makes me uncomfortable. Not just because of the way it makes the mountains look, the impact it has on the water, the impact it has on the health of the people, or the reduction in jobs that came with the switch from underground mining to surface mining, but also because of the dirty business and legal techniques big coal companies use to steal peoples' land, sneak around the law, keep mines non-union, and disregard their workers' health, safety, families and lives. It's just sad to drive through and see towns that were once obviously very prosperous empty and poverty stricken because of the boom and bust of coal. I'm still not entirely comfortable saying that coal mining is terrible, because it seems like underground mining in the past was much more people-friendly, mainly because it employed more miners, but also because mines weren't all owned by the same mega coal companies (monopolies, anyone? I am not always the best at keeping up with American politics, but I'm pretty sure that the first Roosevelt tried to make some rules so scary companies couldn't dominate the market. But then again, I'm not a historian, politician, or coal miner). Underground mining is pretty dangerous (not that sending your kids to school underneath a sludge pond created because of surface mining isn't dangerous) from what I understand.

I definitely feel more comfortable driving my car, eating red meat, and not recycling than I do supporting Massey Energy. But at the same time, I don't have a solution to the economic gap that coal fills (for the state, but not for the people). It's frustrating to realize that a politician who is anti-coal can basically kiss his/her/hir political career in West Virginia goodbye. Even my beloved Senator Byrd is pro-coal (obviously, or how would he have continued being a successful WV politician for 50+ years?). It's frustrating to see white trucks driving on the interstate with their "Friends of Coal" stickers covered in black dust. I'm not comfortable with the coal industry, that's for sure. But the more I learn and the more I learn to love this area of the country, the more I want the people to be successful and happy. And it seems to me that this can't be possible with coal, or without it. Mineral wealth is a fickle friend.

I'm sorry to rant about the coal industry. I actually wanted to talk about Appalachian culture and the reason Appalachian needs something like Appalshop (here's a hint: it has to do with safe spaces), but I got side-tracked. I will go to the bar tomorrow or do a radio show so I can talk about something else. Listen to Deep In Tradition tomorrow at 1 pm with Rich Kirby and I at http://appalshop.org/wmmt/!

A Stranger With A Large Instrument Walks Into A Bar...

Last night I bid the people I am living with farewell for the evening, feeling like a teenager of the youngest teenage parents ever. I drive down the driveway, realize that this is the first time I have left the house at night, and head into town to the Summit City Lounge, Whitesburg's bar for open mic night.

I had no idea what to expect. I brought my bass thinking that maybe I would be able to con someone into letting me play with them. I pulled into the fairly empty community parking lot behind the bar and started to unload my bass. My "I am a female carrying a large instrument" senses kicked in and I thought about how I had managed to keep most of my faith in humanity over the course of 20 years, and how I didn't want to lose it all because I got mugged in a small-town parking lot. Then a tall figure approached me.

Okay, so I didn't get mugged. This guy came up to me and offered to carry my bass. People who know me well know that I hate it when men try to help me with my bass. But I have softened over the years, because I want to still be able to use my back when I am 60, and it makes other people feel helpful to help. Even so, allowing a complete stranger to carry my bass up the steps into a bar in a strange town where I didn't know anybody was a huge stretch for me.

The bar was pretty empty. I got there around 8, when the open mic was supposed to start, but there were only 3 or 4 other people there. I started talking to the guy who carried my bass, and another guy who the person that I live with told me to find. We mostly talked music, and I agreed to back him up on bass while he played some banjo songs.

It was so nice to just sit down and talk to and play music with someone else close to my age who actually understands what old time music is. While I love educating people at Oberlin about old time music, it gets tiring, especially when all they want to play is "Country Roads" and "Wagon Wheel." Not that those aren't great songs, but I just want to play fiddle and banjo music, not sentimental traveling songs that bring me back to summer camp and high school parties. Plus my old time music experience is pretty limited to WV tunes, and while KY tunes are similar, there are so many people and songs that I haven't heard of. I learned a new tune Morgan's March and a pretty cool story about it too, all in the course of 10 minutes.

The open mic aspect was really relaxed, mostly because there weren't that many musicians there, but also because this is participatory music. We played a few songs, then an older guitar player went on. I stayed for a while and talked to his wife, a school teacher in the school system. I made friends with the bartender, and met a whole bunch of people. Can I just say that I love small towns? A lot of people had heard that I was interning at Appalshop, a few people had heard that I was coming to the open mic, and from the moment I stepped out of my car, I felt like people were looking out for me. I was offered drinks (duh), cigarettes, blankets, shopping, and men advice. Other people might have found the attention I have been getting simply because I am new in town creepy, or intrusive, but it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside (and let me clarify that most of this has not been guy flirting at the bar kind of attention).

Going to a bar by yourself where you don't expect to know anyone to play music on a stage before you are 21 when you've grown up in an even smaller town is scary, as is parking in nearly empty parking lots, but I was safe because I was going to a bar by myself to play music on a stage in this town. And I think the experience helped me gain a little more faith in humanity.

Listen to WMMT from 8-10 am on Thursday!!!!

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!!

Okay, maybe not so important that it warrants caps lock. But on Thursday, January 14th (that's this Thursday), I will be doing Pine Mountain Mornings on WMMT from 8-10 am EST. In Eastern KY, some parts of VA and WV, it is 88.7 FM, but for the rest of the world, it can be streamed live from http://appalshop.org/wmmt/ by clicking the Listen Live! button with the picture of the possum in the upper left hand corner. While it will probably not be the last time I am on the radio this January, it will be the first times that I have any warning about it and can tell all of my friends and neighbors. So if you are free from 8-10 am on Thursday, have internet access, or would be listening to the radio or some sort of music with a computer during that time slot, please please listen. I've already used up about 3 minutes of my 15 minutes of fame, and it was a complete waste (I sounded like a complete idiot on an old time music documentary), so I'm determined that the next 12 be much much better.

In other news, I am learning more and more about radio and music and sound. I'm starting to learn how to use Adobe Audition, a type of sound editing software. I'm going to be so legit by February.

I'm also falling head over heals in love with community radio. If I had a crush on it at the beginning of break, it has blossomed into a passionate affair.

I recently started a book called Coal River by Michael Shnayerson, which is about mountain top removal and the people who are fighting against it. It is a really interesting book, and it gets me fired up. I don't want to go into it now, but last night after reading it, I couldn't sleep because I was so pissed off at Massey Energy, one of the biggest, baddest coal companies (I don't really like to use the word evil, but it keeps popping into my head when I think about this company). But that is for another post.

Some Cool Things

1. WMMT has a show called "What's Cookin' Now!" which is, as far as we know it, the only on-air radio cooking show. The first Wednesday of every month at 6 pm EST, three wonderful people who are excellent cooks (who all have different and interesting day jobs) come in to Appalshop's kitchen and cook up a storm, describing what they are doing on air, and having an absolute blast doing it. Most of the radio staff hangs around for the show for delicious food and great company. Last week's episode was Soups and Stews. There was a tomato soup with blue cheese, a corn chowder, a cauliflower curry soup, and a ham and bean soup (the only one I didn't eat... my hypocritical vegetarianism allows me to eat chicken stock, but not chunks of ham). All of them were delicious and scarfed up quickly along with homemade oatmeal bread. Yum.

2. There is a cemetery behind the house I am living in. It is a small, relatively new cemetery, and has become part of my running route (One of the un-cool things is that the town's two gyms are only opened from 9-5 on weekdays). Yesterday I was snowed in, so I spent about an hour walking around the snowy cemetery, really taking time to look at the headstones and think about the people I had been (respectfully, I hope) running over.

3. Summit City Lounge. I got introduced to the town's only bar on my first day there (don't worry mom, I went with the radio staff for lunch). It is like the Dirtbean in Marlinton plus alcohol and live music, and minus the gym. Good coffee, good eats, and apparently good open mics (I missed the one this week because I was wiped out, but I will be at the next one for sure!).

4. I am being treated like an adult. Not that this is the first time that this has happened, but it's the first time I actually feel like I deserve to be treated like an adult. It's different than being treated like an adult at my summer job, when I didn't need the money to pay my electric bills or feed my kid. And it's way different than being treated like an adult as a college student. When I am at college, I feel further away from being an adult than ever. I did the work to find this internship with the help of others, but it was definitely self-powered. I drove here all by myself, I get myself up in the mornings, I cook (and sometimes burn) my own food, clean my own space, and decide how I am going to spend my own time. While I do everything I am told to do at WMMT, I feel that the only person I really have to answer to is myself. And it's definitely different than kind of independence I have at college.

5. Okay, so there are way more cool things, but I am tired and am reading a good book. The final cool thing, is because this is happening in January during wintery weather, and not July, I feel no pressure to go out and try to be social. The wonderful people I live and work with are enough company for me at least right now. I appreciate the time I'm spending alone knitting, reading, playing instruments, and thinking my own thoughts. Although I live with two other people, I spend the majority of my free time essentially alone, but I don't feel lonely. After spending the end of last semester feeling strangely isolated, it feels good to remember how nice it can be to spend some quality time with yourself. Plus I'm making major progress on a sweater, make some kick-butt chili with very few ingredients, reading about mountain top removal, and re-gaining my former Pocahontas county track mountain running strength.

Water and Coal - Rant Warning!!!!

You can't drink the water in Whitesburg. Well you can, but it's probably not safe, due to coal mining run-off. People have to buy huge jugs of water, a la the dentist's office, that get shipped from VA. I've cooked oatmeal and made tea with the KY water, and even though it's supposed to be safe after it's been boiled, it just doesn't taste right. It's strange because I am such an advocate for drinking tap water and find the whole bottled water industry complete and utter bullshit. But sometimes, you have to get your water from elsewhere.

Did I mention that I'm in the United States right now? Not a third world country, or the sight of a recent natural disaster. Okay, so I know that many people in US cities don't drink the water. But is that because it is actually unsafe, or because it just doesn't taste like our ideal of water? I that if the water in New York were actually hazardous to drink, there would be a huge public outcry, and the coal companies that were doing the polluting would be forced to pay huge fines and clean up their acts. But wait, this is Appalachia. As long as the lights are on, nobody says anything.

I'm a lot more conscious of where my electricity comes from now that I'm in a town where coal mining is a major employer (heck, it is probably the biggest employer). Coal runs the space heater that keeps me warm, the computer that allows me to blog, and the heat for the water in my shower, water that I can't drink because of coal companies. It's all one big carbon circle. Even though coal powers my home in WV, it's a lot further off when coal mining is an abstract concept that happens in some less nice part of the state. Whitesburg is absolutely beautiful, but I know that a couple of valleys over, there is surface mining going on.

Ever since the arrests of Oberlin students who were protesting mountain top removal in West Virginia last October, I've been very internally conflicted about the issue of mountain top removal. It's clear to me that surface mining is terrible for the health of the land and the health of the people. Coal is not a renewable resource, and neither are the Appalachian mountains, while things may seem okay now, in the future there will be serious repercussions that will be obvious to even the staunchest of coal advocates.

On the other hand, I am very uncomfortable with the idea of outsiders coming in to an area, and telling people that they have to take away their way of putting food on their tables and paying for water they can't drink, without offering a viable economic alternative for their communities. I know that there are many Appalachians who are working to end mountain-top removal and find new economic alternatives, but as a West Virginian at Oberlin, I don't always see this aspect of the argument.

During this month, I hope to learn more, and attempt to resolve this internal conflict, or if that is not possible, find a way that I can become part of a solution that will work for both the environment, and the people who live in that environment. I am an outsider in Whitesburg, and I don't pretend not to be. I don't have a solution for this issue, and even if I thought I did, I wouldn't even want to pretend that it was the best one. I am going to watch, listen, and learn, and above all not be the outsider who comes in to try to tell the dumb Appalachians how to run their lives. For now, I can make playlists that will hopefully make the days of WMMT's listeners a little brighter.

This was a very heated post. I feel very passionate about this issue (obviously) and don't yet know a lot about it (obviously again). Learning about it and becoming calm enough to state my feelings in a few sentences is a secondary goal of this winter term project.

Welcome to Whitesburg

So this is actually my 4th night in Whitesburg Kentucky. Sleeping, knitting while having my yarn attacked by my host's cat, playing banjo, and reading Le Petit Prince have all been more compelling night activities than staring at a computer honestly.

So why am I in this corner of Appalachia, when I could have stayed in Green Bank, WV, my own corner of Appalachia, sleeping in my own bed, having my knitting being eaten by my own cats, and eating food that my parents cooked/paid for? The answer is quite simple: Appalshop.

I've honestly had a hard time explaining Appalshop to people who have asked me what I'm doing for winter term. The simple answer I've given -- that it is a non-profit dedicated to community building and preserving Appalachian culture that does a lot of media projects, simply does not do Appalshop justice. I fell in love with Appalshop mostly because of its traditional music program that has an after-school component that teaches Letcher County students fiddle and banjo (which has always been one of my dreams). I pestered multiple people there with my e-mails so I could spend January here in Whitesburg, which despite its close proximity to the coalfields, is a beautiful town.

So here I am in Whitesburg, working for WMMT 88.7, an amazing community radio (sort of like WVMR on steroids, for Pocahontas County residents). I'll admit that I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do with Appalshop. I just wanted to be a part of it. But I couldn't have been better placed. I love music, I love to hear myself talk, and I love community radio (I recently spent a morning listening to 2 hours of gospel programming on WVMR and enjoyed it thoroughly).

Much of what I have done so far has been going through WMMT's extensive music collection, and making sure all of the tracks have correct meta-data (i.e. artist, publisher, etc.). I started in Americana on Monday, and am still there. My work on this collection has left me to ponder many things, first and foremost: Why is Bjork in the Americana folder? This job sounds boring and tedious, and it is, but it is right up my alley. I get to look over and listen to all sorts of music. Plus I know that having all of the correct meta-data will be a big help to programmers in the future.

And yesterday I got to be on the radio! I helped create much of the set of the traditional music program, did a little on-air talking and had an absolute blast yesterday afternoon. So I clicked the wrong button and played a song too early once or twice, and ended up subconsciously playing a largely WV and Oberlin alum band set, but there was no dead air. I had so much fun. Hopefully I will be doing more soon.

So I will leave it there, and talk more about my trip and Whitesburg and Appalshop later. In the meantime, listen to WMMT: http://appalshop.org/wmmt/

(You can stream it live and by all means should)

And check out:

http://appalshop.org/