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/