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Appalachia's Blues Brothers: Stick and Brownie McGhee
This week, Steve and Rod tell the story of Granville “Stick” McGhee and Walter “Brownie” McGhee, two brothers from East Tennessee whose music helped …
7 hours ago
Off To See the King: The 1730 Cherokee Mission to London
In 1730, seven Cherokee leaders traveled from their Appalachian home to the heart of London. Hand-picked by a Scottish adventurer named Alexander Cum…
1 week ago
The Cursed Rails of the Big Bull Tunnel
The Big Bull Tunnel in Wise County, Virginia looks like any other railroad tunnel, just a simple cut through a hillside. Looks, though, can be decei…
2 weeks ago
The Dark Shadows of Blue Ridge, Georgia
Today we tell not one but two stories, both involving the same community in Fannin County, Georgia.
In 1864 two men, brothers-in-law Elisha Stanley a…
3 weeks ago
Outlaws of the High Country: The Story of the Eller Gang
This week Rod and Steve tell the story of a gang of robbers who cast a long shadow over Ashe County, North Carolina in the unsettled years after the …
4 weeks ago
When a Final Wish Became a Circus: The Story of the Sunshine Woman
This week’s story is the bizarre true tale of Leila Davidson Hansell, known as "The Sunshine Woman," and the controversy surrounding her final restin…
1 month ago
The Tennessee Moonshiner the Law Couldn’t Hold: The Story of Hut Amerine
Born in Blount County, Hut Amerine grew into one of East Tennessee’s most notorious moonshiners. After the Civil War, federal whiskey taxes ignited a…
1 month, 1 week ago
Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On: The Story of Appalachian Piano Man Roy Hall
James Faye Hall, better known as Roy Hall, was born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in 1921. He died in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee in 1984.
Between those da…
1 month, 2 weeks ago
The Tally War: The 1906 North Carolina Railroad Riot
We’ve told the story of labor conflicts from Harlan, Kentucky to Blair Mountain, West Virginia. This week, we tell a story that’s not set in the Kent…
1 month, 3 weeks ago
The Lost Town of Mortimer, North Carolina
A once thriving lumber and mill town in the mountains of western North Carolina, Mortimer rose fast, becoming prosperous…until it was washed away twi…
2 months ago