Illustration by Smokies Life
Smoky Mountain Air brings you the science, stories, and sounds of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hosts Valerie Polk and Karen Key interview authors, scientists, and park experts about life in the Smokies past and present.
Introducing Sepia Tones: Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson explore Black Appalachian music
Our guests Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson talk about an exciting new podcast mini-series they’ll be co-hosting as part of Smoky Mountain Air called Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music. This mini-series can be found right here through this podcast, with new episodes every other month.
Sepia Tones E1: Bagpipes, banjos, ngonis, and gourds
On this special episode of Smoky Mountain Air, guest hosts Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson kick off an exciting new mini-series called Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music. Guests Loyal Jones, Sparky Rucker, and James Leva contribute to this lively conversation about the roots of Appalachian music and their own roles in preserving these musical influences.
Sepia Tones E2: Driving (and Fiddling) While Black, Appalachian Music at Home and on the Road
On this episode of our mini-series Sepia Tones, Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson examine music within rural communities with guests Earl White, Larry Kirksey, and Kip Lornell. Each of our guests has been on their own quest, whether seeking the musical kinship of other black performers past and present, finding a life outside of Kentucky coal camps, or documenting the rich musical landscape of rural communities.
Sepia Tones E3: Sacred and Spiritual Music in the Mountains
On this episode of our mini-series Sepia Tones, Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson welcome a spirited conversation with special guests Dr. Kathy Bullock and Rev. Dr. Virgil Wood. Our guests discuss the African American traditions of spiritual music, gospel, and the unique revival of shape note singing in 20th-century Appalachia. In many cases, music from sacred traditions and communities also became anthems that propelled those struggling in the civil rights movement.
Sepia Tones E4: Dom Flemons, The American Songster
On this episode of our mini-series Sepia Tones, Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson welcome Dom Flemons, a renowned performer of American folk music and a founding member of The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Citing a variety of musical influences—including the legendary Howard Armstrong and the inimitable Elizabeth Cotten—Flemons shares his journey into becoming a tradition-bearer of old-time music and demonstrates the subtleties of rural black musical styles he’s learned along the way.
Sepia Tones E5: Amythyst Kiah with Jack Tottle
Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson talk to Amythyst Kiah, an acclaimed musician and songwriter whose work is redefining genre boundaries and has established her as a distinctive new voice of Appalachia. Reconnecting with Amythyst in this episode is her mentor, Jack Tottle, an accomplished musician with a long career as a singer, songwriter, author, and educator.
Sepia Tones E6: Hip-hop in the Heart of Appalachia
Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson talk to Geonoah Davis and Kelly Thompson, two artists whose hip-hop sounds are expanding traditional ideas about music in Appalachia. Borrowing from a generations-old African American heritage of spoken word expression, rap and hip-hop echo a long narrative tradition of African American cultural survival against all odds. These original historical elements are deeply rooted in the fabric of Appalachia, blending into the backdrop of the region’s musical character yet revived and brought forward again by these fresh creative talents with their contemporary styles.
Sepia Tones E7: From Coal Mining to Country Music with Alice Randall
Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson talk to songwriter, author, and scholar Alice Randall, whose pioneering work in country music garnered her video-of-the-year recognition (“Is There Life out There,” Reba McEntire) and acknowledgement as the first black woman to be the co-writer of a number one country song (“XXX’s and OOO’s,” Trisha Yearwood). She is also a New York Times bestselling author (The Wind Done Gone) and serves on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, where she has taught courses on Black country music, coal mining history and culture, and soul food.
Singing Creek: Meet author Morgan Simmons and Illustrator Don Wood
On this episode, we talk to Morgan Simmons and Don Wood, the author and illustrator of Singing Creek—a new book published by Smokies Life that takes young readers on an adventure of music and survival in the world of a Smoky Mountain stream.
Mishaps and Mayhem: David Brill talks about his Smokies Life title Into the Mist and writing for Smokies Life Journal
On this episode of Smoky Mountain Air, we look back at an interview we recorded a few months ago with David Brill, author of the book Into the Mist, a collection of real-life stories depicting people caught in extreme situations in the Smokies and their dramatic struggles for survival. Into the Mist is published by Smokies Life and available at SmokiesLife.org.
During our conversation, Brill shared excerpts from several of his works and reflected on how he came to be a writer after hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. We spoke to David Brill on an online video chat while he was at home in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee.
Stephen Lyn Bales Talks Birds
Stephen Lyn Bales is the former senior naturalist at Ijams Nature Center in Knoxville and the author of Ephemeral by Nature: Exploring the Exceptional with a Tennessee Naturalist, Natural Histories: Stories from the Tennessee Valley, and Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, each published by UT Press. A native of Gatlinburg, he is the great-grandson of Jim Bales whose home site is preserved on Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.
Bales has written for Smokies Life magazine, including a story on the winter wren, which appeared in one of our missing issues, Volume 9, #1. These missing issues are no longer in print but are available to view online.
“Life in the Canopy” by Rose Houk
What goes on in the uppermost layers of a Smoky Mountain forest? Does anything live up there? And who’s going to climb up there to find out? “From charismatic microfauna to megafauna—from water bears to black bears—the forest canopy harbors so much,” says author Rose Houk.
Join us as we delve into one of the ‘missing issues’ of our biannual publication, Smokies Life, to rediscover Houk’s article “Life in the Canopy.” Learn about the diverse wildlife that resides in the forest canopy and the risky, physical work required to identify these creatures. This article appeared in Smokies Life, Volume 9, Issue #2, an older issue now out of print. In addition to this special reading, we are resurrecting some of our ‘missing issues’ and providing them free, digitally, through our virtual magazine, Smokies LIVE.
Janet McCue and Paul Bonesteel Explore Photographer George Masa's Fascinating Life
Bill Hart’s article about George Masa, the enigmatic photographer who was born in Japan but came to America and gave his heart to the Great Smoky Mountains region, appeared along with a selection of Masa’s photographs in one of our ‘missing issues’ of Smokies Life, Volume 2, #2. These missing issues are no longer in print but are available to view online.
Janet McCue and Paul Bonesteel, the co-authors of George Masa: A Life Reimagined, joined the podcast via online video chat while they were in their respective states of New York and North Carolina.