“Stories of Mountain Folk” Records Vanishing Heritage
by Amy Ammons Garza
The hour-long radio show “Stories of Mountain Folk” is aired every Saturday morning at 9 a.m. on WRGC Jackson County Radio, 540 AM, then online at www.storiesofmountainfolk.com. The show includes interviews woven together with original songs and the musical talents of local songwriters and entertainers.
The culture of the African-Appalachian culture in Western North Carolina goes back to the early 1800s. The story of this culture that went “from slavery to Congress” is now coming forth with the efforts of a few local black storytellers, one of whom is Victoria A. Casey McDonald, one of CSA’s interviewers.
“I became interested in our heritage in the late 1900s when our family began to do reunions,” she says. “I would ask questions, and was unable to get many answers. This only encouraged me to dig more into our history here in the mountains, and what I found was mind-blowing! ‘Stories of Mountain Folk’ helps me save our oral heritage.”
“Stories of Mountain Folk” is an ongoing oral history program produced by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia (CSA), a western North Carolina not-for-profit.
