Long Point String Band is an Old-Time Acoustic “Neo-Traditional” outfit from southern W.V. They blend the authenticity of Old-Time Mountain Music, with the flare of bluegrass, regularly playing musical selections from West Virginia old-time and bluegrass pioneers. The group consists of the virtuosic stylings of Hunter Walker, Brian C. Bell, Lewis Prichard and Lars Swanson. […]
From the hills of West Virginia, Aurora Celtic plays evocative, original and traditional music for guitar, fiddle, Irish flute, whistle, mandolin and tenor banjo that bridges the cultures of Scotland, Ireland and Appalachia.
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Allan Dale Sizemore, also known professionally as Black King Coal, has been writing songs for almost 30 years. He has fronted the first Americana Appalachian Stompgrass group Rust Kings, became a founding member of the Americana Music Association, had his songs featured as the national PBS Song Of The Week on All Songs Considered twice, scored a European Top 10 Bluegrass/Americana album (Rust Kings’ Hotel West Virginia) and been featured on the Merlefest Songwriters Stage. Not too bad for a boy from Trout Valley, WV.
Currently, Allan is the musical consultant/coordinator for the television show Barnwood Builders on DIY Network. He also is a member of The Wild Rumpus as well as Black King Coal, an Appalachian Soul group playing his compositions and songs he’s co-written with various songwriter friends, and he also keeps a pretty busy solo schedule. His songwriting is varied in subject matter as well as style, from fingerpicked stories to full blues and soul, and whatever comes, he keeps an open mind.
The Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys are among West Virginia’s longest-running bluegrass bands. The group first organized in 1968, taking their name from Black Mountain in their native Pocahontas County. As with many bluegrass bands, the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys have had changes in personnel over the years. Richard Hefner remains as the lone original member. Hefner’s traditional bluegrass banjo playing and tenor vocals have contributed both continuity and much of the “high lonesome” sound for which the band has become so well-known. He is joined by Chris Nickell (lead and rhythm guitar work as well as lead vocals), Rick Carpenter (mandolin and lead and baritone vocals), and Mike Smith (bass).
Paul and Doug have been playing together since 1998. They have taught, alone or together at the Augusta Heritage and Allegheny Echoes workshops and have shared billing with Jimmy Webb, Mike Seeger, the Avett Brothers, Bettye LaVaye, Carrie Rodriguez, Michael Hurley and the Chapin Sisters. They love playing for square dances and festivals and […]
Michael and Carrie Kline weave West Virginia stories and folklore with spine tingling harmonies on voice and guitar. They live and breathe Appalachian music and culture. Their voices carry the songs with truth and authenticity. The Klines present their music both as entertainment and social history, with engaging ease and hard-hitting passion. Their high mountain harmonies meld with their intertwining bass lines on two guitars, with Michael’s melodic flat-picking and Carrie’s rhythmic backup.
The Elk River Ramblers are Terry Richardson on guitar, Galen Watts on bass and vocals, and Paul Marganian on fiddle, guitar, and vocals. With a foundation in old-time and celtic music, The Elk River Ramblers also branch out into bluegrass, klezmer, and contemporary pop. They are the house band at the Elk River Inn at Slatyfork, WV, and can be heard there most Thursday Nights.
They say that when the planets align and the currents of fate swirl just so, that a band will be formed to pale all other bands. An astrologer was consulted in regards to The Gage Brothers, “The planets looked like a connect the dots puzzle when they started. A very easy one, and quite scattered […]
Glen Shelton P.O. Box 63 Madison Heights, VA 24572 434-841-1146 Email Glen Directly shelton688@aol.com Shared the stage with more than 40 National Acts including Joe Nichols, Sawyer Brown, Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis, Lonestar, Darryl Worley, Rhonda Vincent, Ronnie McDowell, Lee Ann Womack, and Jimmy Fortune Most of Glen’s performances include popular Country music (cover songs) as […]
Meet Bill Hefner: guitar builder, musician, and founding member of Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys. Bill plays finger style and flat picking guitar and mandolin in a variety of music styles with his family, The Hefner Family, including Gospel, Civil War-era music, Bluegrass, Chord Melody guitar, early Country, Irish, and Doo Wop. They play at churches, family reunions, local festivals, Allegheny Mountain Radio, the Pocahontas County Opera House, the guitar shop, or the back porch. In addition to being a musician, Bill is an accomplished guitar builder. He is a member of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans and the Guild of American Luthiers.
Hell for Certain String Band is an old-time Appalachian string band based in West Virginia’s stunning Greenbrier Valley. The band takes its name from Hell for Certain Branch, a stream within the Monongahela National Forest’s Cranberry Wilderness Area. Many of Hell for Certain’s tunes originated in the Monongahela region, and represent tough times for hard-working folks negotiating the rugged, high-elevation terrain of the mountains.
Jesse Milnes and Emily Miller perform country and old-time music, singing close harmony with Jesse’s unique finger-picked guitar style and a healthy dose of old-time fiddling.
John Wyatt, the Appalachian! Appalachian from the heart best describes John. His songs and stories of the mountains transport you back to another time and place. Wyatt’s music and storytelling celebrates the common bonds of faith and family and what it means to be Appalachian. His music has a hint of the old Carter […]
Jonah Carden is a gloom rock Americana songwriter from Peterstown, WV. Jonah writes: “New album “Last Train Home” is out now! Now available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. If you would like to pick up a disc, the following locations have been kind enough to stock a few for me: WVVA.net […]
Juanita Fireball & the Continental Drifters debuted at the Pocahontas County Opera House in 2008, although they have been making music together in one form or another for twenty-five years. They play Appalachian string band tunes, many of which they learned years ago from old-timers in West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. They sing songs about animals, outlaws, fruit and love, with a few gospel numbers for balance. The high energy of their hard-driving music will have you dancing in the aisles.
The Keeney Mountain Boys Dustin Northern, his friends Dalton Smith and Kody Burns, and occasionally some other young virtuosos, create a powerful and young bluegrass band. Dustin, Kody, and Dalton live in Hinton, West Virginia, where they were taught the rudiments of bluegrass by their grandparents. Thus, they play the oldest style of bluegrass […]
Hunter Walker, Cat Deck and Brian Bell have that skill and the passion for the music of that era. The three got together awhile back and formed a group called The Long Point String Band. “I have been merited as the four-time West Virginia State Dulcimer Champion,” Walker said. “I’ve also been named as the […]
The Mountain Music Trail has many musicians associated with us. They are available to be booked!
Charlie Loudermilk started playing banjo in the late 1940s and Junior Spencer started playing the fiddle about the same time. By the 1950s they had started playing square dances together. They played music together regularly until Charlie’s passing in 2012. In the mid 70’s Charlie’s sons started playing with them. Jerry “Cannonball” played the upright […]
“Mud Hole OUT of Control” is an Appalachian Old Time String Band. It consists of four young men who carry on the tradition of old time music that makes WV & The Mountain Music Trail so special. They have a special show for you to enjoy! These teenagers have been playing together for […]
Ox in the Mud Studio (named after a fiddle tune) began in 2013 in Greenbrier County, WV as an idea to help promote traditional music among young students who were interested in learning a stringed instrument. The studio offers afternoon/evening classes for fiddle, clawhammer banjo, guitar, and occasionally mandolin. Fiddle and banjo tunes, folk songs, […]
Patrick is a minstrel and folk singer, performing the music of The People. Blues and Americana are his primary format. He sings and plays in the tradition of Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Utah Phillips, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, and Steve Goodman. Every song has a personality that it is […]
Rachel was born and raised in rural WV just south of Morgantown, where her musical family inspired her to play and sing as a little girl. She grew up listening to local fiddlers, her father among them, going to old-time festivals, and attending square dances. The old-time bug bit her early in life and Rachel now performs and teaches full-time on fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin and bass.
Rebecca Wudarski Based out of the small mountain town of Thomas, WV Rebecca is a full-time artist and musician. Rebecca plays in many small folk music ensembles including Aurora Celtic and as a duet with fiddler Scotty Leach. Her current solo music project is a one-woman-band where she simultaneously plays electric guitar, bass drum, hi-hat, and […]
The River Drivers are a band with roots that run deep in a number of musical genres. Anchored by Kevin McCloskey (vocals, guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass) and Mindy Murray (vocals, guitar, banjo) with accompaniment by Marian Moran (tin whistle, low whistle, concertina, bodhrán) and Meagan Ratini (fiddle, Irish flute, tin whistle). The River Drivers […]
An eclectic group of musicians occupying the hills and hollers of southern West Virginia, we are named after the creek that bounds down one of those mountain sides. We play Acoustic Americana music that is rich in harmonies. We engage audiences with good time music. Rush Run = A creek in Pocahontas County, WV Philharmonic […]
Sugar Run , founded in 2010, consists of the husband and wife team of Mike (clawhammer and three-finger banjo, guitar, mandolin, dobro and vocals) and Bonnie Johnson (bass-fiddle and vocals), who live in Pocahontas County, WV; Stanley Asbury (flat-pickin’ style guitar and vocals) who lives in Monroe County, WV; Rachel Johnson (Bluegrass and Old-time fiddle) who lives in Greenbrier County, WV.
Sugar Run’s music ranges from traditional high-energy Bluegrass, foot-stompin’ Old-Time, poignant ballads of heartbreak and loss, old-style Country and Honky-tonk music, gospel, as well as original compositions. We also feature specific musical formats and selections for special occasions, such as: Civil War reenactments, dances, or remembrance festivals; local tradition events; railroading and logging events; dances; etc.
Sugar Run’s home range is situated in the Allegheny Mountain region of West Virginia and Virginia. Our regular performance venues include Virginia and West Virginia. We do play in other areas as the opportunities arise, and we are willing to travel.
Talking Across the Lines provides tailor-made folklife and arts-centered tours, oral history and music classes and live performances of “mountain music for these times” by Michael and Carrie Kline, music makers and folklorists. Call (304) 636-5444 or write klines@folktalk.org.
The Thorny Flat Mountain Boys are named after the second highest point in the state of West Virginia- Thorny Flat on Cheat Mountain. The two began playing music together in 2013. Since the duo formed, special guests such as Paul Marganian from the Elk River Ramblers, Nathaniel Duncan, Austin Alexander, and West Virginia […]
Traditional bluegrass music as taught to them by their family and as sung and played by their ancestors. It is expected of you. To be a member of the Hefner family and play an instrument of some kind as the family has done for many, many years. There was increased pressure on Richard Hefner II, […]
