Ballads

On this West Virginia Morning, we hear from Inside Appalachia about ballads and the stories they tell about Appalachian history and culture. One such story about a true-life bandit was changed through a ballad called Otto Wood.

Suzannah Park is a ballad singer and teacher who lives in Asheville, North Carolina. She grew up singing all kinds of folk songs, but there are some ballads she just can’t bring herself to sing.

On this West Virginia Morning, murder ballads are a common part of folk and traditional forms of music. They were used to pass on the news, but also to provide morality lessons on how the community felt people — typically women — should act.

On this West Virginia Morning, the ballad of John Henry tells the story of a railroad worker who challenges a steam drill to see who could tunnel into a mountain the fastest and farthest. With his strength and skill, John Henry wins, but he dies from the effort. For some people who grew up in Black communities in Appalachia, the song elicits a variety of feelings.

On this West Virginia Morning, trains have been a large part of the American story since the first steam trains rolled down the tracks – and with them came song and ballads.

This week on Inside Appalachia, we’re talking about traditional ballads -- how they tell stories and connect us to the past.

This week’s episode is all about ballad singers and storytellers. We’ll hear an interview with West Virginia native Becca Spence Dobias who wrote a novel called ‘On Home.’ And co-host Mason Adams sits down with ballad singer Elizabeth LaPrelle, who grew up in Rural Retreat, Virginia. We’ll also hear about a song called “Tom Dooley,” which was first released shortly after the Civil War, and much more.

If you’ve listened to Inside Appalachia, there’s a good chance you’ve heard LaPrelle’s music before, as one half of Anna & Elizabeth. That would be LaPrelle, who grew up in Rural Retreat, Virginia, and Anna Roberts Gevalt, who is now based in Brooklyn. Inside Appalachia co-host Mason Adams spoke with LaPrelle to learn more, beginning with LaPrelle’s roots as a ballad singer who took up the tradition of regional legends like Texas Gladden.

This August will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain. Iniside Appalachia Folkways reporter Rebecca Williams talks to Saro Lynch-Thomason, a ballad singer and folklorist from Asheville North Carolina. Saro created the Blair Pathways Project, which tells the history of the West Virginia Mine Wars through music.

This week on Inside Appalachia, co-host Mason Adams sits down with Elizabeth LaPrelle, who grew up in Rural Retreat, Virginia. She and her husband Brian Dolphin moved from Brooklyn back to southwestern Virginia just before the pandemic hit. As longtime performers and new parents they took to Facebook Live, posting weekly livestreams of lullabies and stories. We’ll also hear about a song called “Tom Dooley,” which was first released shortly after the Civil War. It resurfaced 60 years ago, when it topped the Billboard charts.