The Sound & Soul of the South

In this episode, we're diving deep into the heart of Madison County, North Carolina, where music and history intertwine. Donna Ray Norton and Mitchell share the rich musical and cultural heritage of Madison County, North Carolina, and discuss their projects that preserve and promote Appalachian music and history. Discover how this vibrant community continues to nurture its musical roots and innovate with new initiatives like Sound Archive Books.

Join us as we explore the incredible stories behind the music, from the legendary ballad singers to the vibrant venues that bring it all to life. You'll discover how local history shapes the soundscape and how these traditions continue to resonate today.

Special Guest
Donna Ray Norton & Mitchell Davis

Key Topics
The history and significance of Appalachian ballads
The role of oral histories in cultural preservation
Innovative projects like Sound Archive Books
The impact of music tourism in Madison County
Artist residencies and community engagement
The story of Donna Ray Norton and her musical journey
The influence of Cecil Sharp and Appalachian music traditions
Future plans for cultural and musical initiatives in Madison County

Takeaways
Madison County has a vibrant, ongoing live music scene with shows almost every night.
Oral histories and personal stories are vital in preserving Appalachian music traditions.
Sound Archive Books creates a unique blend of music, storytelling, and community engagement.
The community values authentic cultural experiences and actively works to preserve its heritage.
Tourism driven by music and culture can significantly benefit rural communities.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Madison County's Music Scene
00:21 Welcome to Madison County, North Carolina
01:35 Meet Ballad Singer Donna Ray Norton & Mitchell Davis
03:02 Rare Bird Farm & the Million Memory Project
07:22 Turning Music Stories into Sound Archive Books
08:44 How Rare Bird Farm Became a Music Venue
15:07 Donna Ray’s Unforgettable Visit with Yo-Yo Ma
19:31 Discovering Madison County’s Living Music History
24:15 Ballad Singing & the Nest of Singing Birds
24:43 Where to Experience Live Music in Madison County
26:28 The Deep Roots of Appalachian Ballad Singing
28:49 Music Tourism, New Books & What’s Next
35:10 Why Madison County Belongs on a Music Lover’s Road Trip

Resources
Million Memory Project - https://www.millionmemoryproject.org/
Sound Archive Books - https://soundarchivebooks.org/
Rare Bird Farm - https://rarebirdfarm.org/
Nest of Singing Birds - https://www.nestofsingingbirds.com/

Plan your visit to Madison County, NC today at visitmadisoncounty.com!

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Creators and Guests

Producer
Charles Davis

What is The Sound & Soul of the South?

The Sound & Soul of the South spotlights destinations as they share the stories behind their community’s musical roots, legends, attractions, and vibrant live music scenes. Each episode explores how music shapes local identity, culture, and economic impact in destinations throughout the South—appealing to music fans and travelers seeking authentic, music-driven experiences.

speaker-2 (00:21.816)
Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of Sound and Soul of the South. Charles Davis over here. Susie Calvin over there. How you doing, Susie?

speaker-1 (00:29.366)
I'm good, I'm good. Really enjoyed this trip over to Madison County, North Carolina.

speaker-2 (00:35.276)
Yes, yes. We're taking a road trip. We always take road trips here on the show. And this week we're taking a trip over to North Carolina to talk to some great people in Madison and talk about some great historical things. so Susie, you're gonna be taking the reins on this one and and kind of what what what should the people be expecting on this kind of what what are we talking about in this episode?

speaker-1 (00:52.758)
Man, it was such a a collection of thoughts and ideas that culminate in there's books involved, there's a venue involved, there's a train depot involved, lots of great stories, lots of great ways to experience the music that's going on in Madison County.

speaker-2 (01:17.538)
Yeah, yeah, and the the Appalachian history that is embedded in that part of the country is amazing. And we have people on this episode that are directly tied to that history and can't wait for you guys to hear it. So without further ado, let's see who Susie talked to.

speaker-1 (01:35.342)
Well hi friends, how are y'all today?

speaker-0 (01:38.359)
Hey there.

speaker-3 (01:39.694)
How you doing good? How you doing, Susie? Good.

speaker-1 (01:42.439)
Good, good. So let's just do a little introduction real quick and we'll start with you, Donna Ray. Tell me who you are and what you've been up to.

speaker-3 (01:51.644)
my name is Donna Ray Norton. I'm an eighth generation ballad singer from Madison County in western North Carolina. I'm also an ambassador and coordinator for the Million Memory Project, slash Sound Archive Books, Slash Appalachian Memory Project, and through our eyes. And so just sort of a performing artist that's doing lots of performing here lately all over the place. Been to

Montana, Raleigh a couple of different times recently and a quick like one overnight trip to Massachusetts recently, so

speaker-1 (02:31.0)
That's fantastic. Well hello Mitchell. How are you today?

speaker-0 (02:35.086)
Good. Thanks for having us.

speaker-1 (02:37.504)
Rooster was that?

speaker-0 (02:39.574)
That's our rooster, yeah. I close my window.

speaker-1 (02:44.288)
No, we're definitely not editing that out. I love that.

speaker-0 (02:46.978)
Right.

speaker-3 (02:48.416)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (02:50.966)
Everybody said this is real and authentic conversation here with roosters and all.

speaker-3 (02:55.608)
Well, we are in our house, but whatever.

speaker-1 (02:58.186)
Right. All right, Mitchell, tell us a little bit about yourself.

speaker-0 (03:02.094)
Sure. I live the Brewsters we live on a farm outside of Asheville called Rare Bird Farm. I live out here with my wife and three other friends and we've kind of r we've been out here for about six years. It was a abandoned farm that we've sort of brought back to life and turned into a culture center and event venue. Don Ray's played out here several times, recorded an album out here.

And so it's a lot of fun and a real and I think has taught me a lot about being patient with work and a lot of other things that I'm now sort of mapping over to my other professional life, which is I've spent the last twenty five years working in book publishing and library doing a number of different things, mostly software based. We tend to, you know

figure we try to come up with innovative ways to solve problems that if we can and can use software to do that, you can typically turn that into a a business and that's what I've spent the last twenty five years doing. So that this project that Donna Ray's working with us on is a publishing company, a book publishing company. We're very focused on print books, real sort of paper and ink books.

which I think are one of the most efficient and elegant technologies that still exists in the world. And the Million Memory Project is the umbrella organization and then we have different publishing imprints under that depending on who we're working with and the kind of book books we're publishing. Don Rae mentioned Appalachian Memory Project, which was our first imprint, which is really focused

on capturing oral histories and capturing images from personal photography collections. People can bring images to memory days and have those images digitized and tell stories. And we turn that into books. We also turn it into archives, which we can work with institutional partners to host and make open access, but our real focus is on producing the books. we have another imprint called Through Our Eyes, which is a sort of community image based

speaker-0 (05:20.44)
publishing imprint. So one of the projects that we did was a book on the one year anniversary of Halloween where we organized photography submissions from forty six, I think, different contributors in a small town of five hundred people, so a really high participation rate. and we published that as a community voiced book with all the photographs. So when we're doing projects like that, they're

kind of photography focus that's an imprint all through our eyes. And then the project that we're putting probably 90% of our energy into now is Sound Archive Books, which really came about because of working with Donna Ray, who's a touring musician, and Kevin Reese, who's the other person who's helping us do this. He's also been a touring musician and trying to help touring artists develop merch books as merch merchandise.

And I think a big motivation for that was like even here at Rarebird, where we're booking bands and, you know, doing a lot of shows, we see these bands come through and the fans come to the show knowing that the artist is not making any money from Spotify or Apple Music. And there really is a philanthropic intent on the part of the fans to want to settle up and make right and show this artist how important they are. And, you know, so the joke Donna Ray and I always tell is that.

People end up buying CDs and never taking them out of the wrapper or they buy a sweatshirt that they never wear. And I think we just kind of stumbled into like books being a perfect vehicle to sort of consummate that fan artist relationship with a with their name written in it and a look in the eyes and a signature and just a really good merch table experience. So anyway, so that's the one we're putting most of our effort into now. We've published

A few different books and we can talk about those, I'm sure we will as we go. But that's yeah.

speaker-3 (07:22.196)
Yeah. And I think too, one of my favorite parts about the Sound Archive books is, you know, we were sitting in a meeting one day and Mitchell was like talk you know, 'cause he has a venue or whatever and and so I've been on stage and said, Well, you know, we have C Ds, you can use them as coasters or whatever now, like hanging from your rear view or bringing the nineties back, let's do that. But then one of the things that came up was like, you know, what was your favorite thing about buying an album back in the day besides just hearing the music on it, like

What's what was the best part about getting it? You got the liner notes 'cause and you got to learn the actual words that the singers were singing, you know. So it was just kinda like, you know, what if we did something like this? And so it's it's been a little different. Like each book is a little different, but that was sort of one of the things that really drew me to the idea, you know.

speaker-1 (08:09.25)
I love it. I mean I think it's so needed. Mm-hmm. I mean, talk about being storytellers and we talk a lot up here at the creek about being being the oracle, being the storyteller of now. Well, what better way to do that with with a book to tell the story of a place? I love that. So tell me a little bit more about what we could experience if we come to your venue. What is what does that look like?

speaker-3 (08:36.75)
Well obviously there's a rooster there.

speaker-1 (08:41.453)
Hell of that.

speaker-3 (08:43.246)
The rooster was in the building.

speaker-0 (08:44.856)
We got two. It's interesting. We had we had two flocks of hens for a long time, which I was very happy with. And then Bear decided we wanted to have some roosters too. So now we just kinda stuck a rooster with each flock. We it's it has been a very organic process how we've sort of arrived at where we are now. And I can tell hopefully a not too long version of it. But we bought the farm in twenty nineteen and it had been, like I said, abandoned for seven years. So really there was nothing here that was habitable.

There were a lot of old buildings but none of them were usable. And we got one of the little buildings where we could, you know, flush a toilet and turn a light on. And and when COVID happened in March of twenty twenty, we were living in Charleston, South Carolina, where we both had, you know, full lives. and we drove up and just never went home.

we, you know, the but the circumstances of COVID and and my wife had started a non profit in Charleston. She had just hired a new executive director. We had just moved out of our office of the company I was doing. So I don't know, it just all kind of lined up and we never went home and ended up selling our stuff in Charleston and live up here full time now. And we started doing shows in the summer of twenty twenty, outdoor shows during social distancing and all that. And I don't know, just kept trying to make that

better and so have I mean I think a big our big challenge now is like finding our at the right pace because we've now restored one of the barns into an in inside venue which will seat about a hundred and ten, one hundred and fifteen. and it's you know we've we have saved every building. Like we haven't torn any buildings down and we've tried to save everything we could. So this one is now restored. And then we have another stage on the back of another barn that kind of points out to a hill that can hold about

300 or so. So that's kind of our max. We have a big pasture out front that people park in. And I think three years ago we did twenty six shows. Last year we did thirteen and this year we're doing four. And so I think we're just, you know, as you know, this is a labor of love. No one is, you know, it's it's not about any it's just about enjoying doing it. and so I think a big part of this year has been finding the right pace and

speaker-0 (11:05.162)
About a year and a half ago we formed a non I say we my wife and formed a non profit and that nonprofit operates out of here so at least the cultural programming side of what we do now is sustainable. she works part time for that. We have another lady who is amazing who lives out here part time, who works for that nonprofit, Libby Rodenbow. She's also nominated for instrumentalist of the year, Americana this year as a fiddle player, she's really remarkable.

And they've done a great job with the nonprofit. So that part of it is sustainable and then really it's just our home. So yeah, it's a it's a beautiful place. It's we've got rescue animals and trails and it's nice. And host I think next year we'll end up hosting probably six or seven shows. We do tiny festivals which are max out at about three hundred people and have seven bands over two days and yeah. It's a lot of fun.

speaker-3 (11:58.536)
I say as a performer as a performer and a person who's been to show that rare bird as well. Mm it's really a magical place. Like it's it's so beautiful and it's like set in the va in the valley of this big you know, all these mountains around you and they're just you know, there's so much nature around, but also you're getting to see these really cool just have these really cool experiences down there.

And there's always like, you know, if it's nighttime there's just twinkling lights everywhere. I mean it's just it's it really is so beautiful and like the sun sets or I don't even know what to say other than it's just really magical. And there's just for the artists to, you know, have their place and and be before they perform, but then there's places for you to be together as a community and with your people and it's it's really sp it's really special. It's a really special place.

speaker-1 (12:49.42)
I love that so much. So the future of Rare Bird Farm, what does that look like? Have have you thought ten deers ten years down the line?

speaker-0 (13:00.264)
Yeah. I mean it's I I think that will continue to be our home first and foremost. And I think the nonprofit has found like its right pace. I mean, I actually I actually am also expecting to host a couple of Sound Archive books events out here next year. I mean, one of the things we did this year at Rarebird while we were doing less shows was started an artist residency. So we've had

We had one artist here for two weeks and another artist here for one week and we got a grant from South Arts to build to get some recording equipment and stuff. So people have been writing songs and recording songs. So I think I think I would like to find a way to weave that into what we're doing with Sound Archive books too, where if we have an artist who and this might be somebody at the Kevin Kinney would be a dream come true on this, by the way. But someone who, you know, is

needs to tell the which we're doing with Sheila K. Adams now, which I'm sure we'll talk about in a bit, but this kind of create an archive of this this artist's career. And I think a lot of that is oral histories. And I think if we could get an artist here for a you know, a few days and could do some interviews and have them bring friends and kind of organize that retreat the way they wanted it organized and then maybe play a small show at the end of that.

It would be awesome. So I'm hoping some point in twenty twenty seven I'll figure out how to do a sound archive books eventually here too, which would be a lot of fun. But yeah, yeah, I think we found a good a good pace and I hope that with, you know, Libby's and with I want to get some younger people doing it so that it has a life that is bigger than just us also in terms of the programming. So I feel like we're on that on that path.

speaker-1 (14:57.558)
That sounds fantastic. Well, Donna Ray, I I heard you had a special invitation recently. Let's talk about that for a second.

speaker-3 (15:07.542)
Yes, a coup I we had a couple of It was it's qu been quite the interesting week I've had the last week. I got a message from my cousin, Sheila K. Adams, who is a art seventh generation ballad singer, but also National Endowment for the Arts, you know, fellow fellow she's just received all these awards. And she just received the United States Artist Award this year in January, which is one of the nation's highest honors, but

She also has done lots of really cool things other than receiving awards. She's d done shows with all sorts of different people. Yo Yo Ma being one of those people. I think that was back around twenty seventeen. I could have the years wrong, but it was no, it was after COVID. I'm telling a lie. It was after COVID. So but she did a show with Yo Yo a few years ago and we got a she got an email from his team

on Friday last week and he like threw together this sort of last minute gathering of like minded people and they wanted us to come to Massachusetts to the Berkshires to just come and hang out and kind of like network I guess and just talk about things and how we're all doing and so I did not go with Sheila on her first trip to meet Yo Yo and when she was doing the show.

But I did get to go with her this time. So we were just in up up north on Monday. We stayed one night. So we're jet setting ballad singers. She looked up singers. And then we came home on Tuesday and while we were up there, we got an invitation to see Yo Yo. He actually was here in western North Carolina. He was in Brevard on Sunday.

And so we received V I P tickets, his show. We got to go backstage and hang out with him during intermission. he is the swi he is so sweet. He's is so gentle and just reminded me a whole lot of Mr. Fred Rogers, you know. And so and all I you know, I kept thinking like this man actually knows Fred Rogers and he's been on Sesame Street. He's actually been on Sesame Street. You know. But i th because he's just that's the energy he gives. He's just very calm and kind. He is also very funny.

speaker-1 (17:23.266)
Wow.

speaker-3 (17:24.351)
And so I I got to have a moment with him up in Massachusetts and you know, he was really sweet and I told everybody that I talked all about Madison County and how he needed to come for a visit and so I think he's planning on coming in the next month. So T B T B A on that. And yeah, it he he's really sweet and kind and I think he genuinely cares about people.

And and during his concert, y'all, this is one of my favorite parts. Besides I got a kiss on the cheek, that was my other favorite part. But my other favorite part was that at his show, you know, we were like really close to the front row and you know, he's waving at everyone and I n he waved directly at us and I shot him the I love you sign. You know, Sheila and I both started raising up the I love you sign and he waved and he did some stuff with his fingers and then finally he was like

You know, and he shot us the I Love You sign back and I was like, We just got him so much street cred, just didn't get the So it was really cool and and and everybody in the audience was noticing that he did that and so they were like, Do you guys know yo yo? And our friend Josh Kopus was with us and he had taken some photos backstage. So he just gets out his phone and he starts showing everybody these photos of us with yo yo mom backstage. I'm like, put your phone away

speaker-1 (18:21.239)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (18:40.907)
So cool though.

speaker-3 (18:42.114)
Yeah, it was really cool. It was really definitely a highlight. And it's always good when you meet somebody that you have these thoughts of in your mind and like are they really that way? And and then and then they are. Yeah. You know. Diane Sawyer is another one of those people that I got to meet at the beginning of June, and she is exactly the way that you would think that she is. She's really sweet and down.

speaker-1 (19:02.476)
That's fantastic. So I guess I should have asked this in the very beginning, but how long have you guys known each other? How long have y'all been working together? You and Mitchell?

speaker-3 (19:13.769)
Well, I think so.

speaker-0 (19:14.966)
That's a good question. I mean, really since that first video, I guess, huh? When I came to the Madison County Arts Council, 'cause you were in that little film, yeah.

speaker-3 (19:25.238)
Well, was like twenty twenty two or twenty twenty three? Twenty three, maybe twenty. Early no twenty twenty two, it was like twenty Yeah.

speaker-0 (19:31.95)
Well we I it was interesting 'cause because we were new here. We had moved from Charleston and during COVID we had ended up on YouTube finding a a video that a guy had made in Madison County, which is where we both live, in nineteen sixty five. So it's black and white, it was on PBS and he it was the filmmaker was

traveling around with Babscom Lunsford, who's a pretty there's a festival for him at Mars Hill, and he's a pretty well-known song collector from the like early mid 20th century in the mountains. He started the Asheville Folk and Dance Festival, so it was really the first time people were coming down like out of the mountains and playing music in Asheville for crowds and stuff like that. And at the time, 1965, he was 83 or 84 years old and the filmmaker was like 23 years old.

And so it was that video, but it was also the filmmaker who's now eighty. And at the end of it, he was like, you know, people always ask if I've been back to Madison County, it'd be great to get back there one day. And I don't know, fair and I both just decided we're gonna make that happen and did. And so at some point during that we got summoned to the Madison County Arts Council as these ne newcomers who are starting to tread into historical territory.

And got to meet Donna Ray and Sheila Kay and Laura Businger and Leela Weinstein. It was like a who's who of Appalach and And it was amazing because they I think first of all, I think by the end they were like, these people are pretty good. We can probably keep them around. But they also I think helped us to understand that like the history of Madison County wasn't on YouTube, it was like sitting in that room.

Mm-hmm. With us, you know, and that's what I s and it and it really did change the entire tone and trajectory. We ended up making a like twelve minute documentary of his visit that is really, really exceptional. And Donna Ray's the first person in it. And yeah, that's how we sort of I don't know, started and then and then we and then Donna, our first we did a dog a dog at Gap music festival, which was our a festival we do in the spring, which is really

speaker-0 (21:56.224)
It's a major theme is old time music and dance classes and you know, things like that. And Donna Ray well, Nesta Singbirds sang and then Donna Ray also did that's where she played with Tyler Ramsey. They did this sort of like mashup ethereal guitar ballad thing that was like one of the craziest things I've ever seen.

speaker-1 (22:19.114)
It sounds amazing.

speaker-0 (22:21.928)
And so that was a lot of fun and yeah, I got to know Sheila. I hooked Sheila up with some moonshine that day, so I won her over and yeah, so rest of his

speaker-3 (22:31.374)
It's true. It was magical. I still have like get it gives me like butter the warm fuzzies and butterflies when I think about that. That was really cool. And Mitchell has been like you know, the fact that he and Pharaoh are willing to come and meet with us and talk about this thing that they were doing.

Before they even did it. And I would like to just say that I was also summoned to the arts council. I was not one of the summoners. I was a summoning. And so was Tia. But also, you know, it was just the fact that of course we were gonna go, but the fact that these people who were from off, as we say here. Yes. Like were from off at that time, you know, like these people from off actually took the time to come in and like hear us and and ask this question and and you know, find out

right way to do this thing was like really sp spoke volumes to me because you know we're a little standoffish around Madison County sometimes we can do Yeah, and we're not hateful as we say. We're not hateful nor nothing, but like we just want to make sure that people are doing things for the right reasons, you know, 'cause we've experienced lots of times people doing things for the wrong reasons. And so we're applauding. And so

speaker-1 (23:33.932)
As you should be.

speaker-3 (23:50.146)
You know, it was really special to me that they were willing to do that. And so I immediately could see that they were good people and have I've felt that way ever since. And then I I got reintroduced to them, or maybe Josh introduced us first before you guys even came to the arts council. I think I hadn't met you for like a split second because they had come to one of our ballot spots. So Yeah. And when Mitchell says nest of singing birds, that's the group, it's a

speaker-0 (24:09.366)
That's true.

speaker-3 (24:15.618)
collective of individual musicians and we sing ballads together and I'm the leader of the group and Sheila's our matriarch so and we do a ballad swap at the old Marshall Joe Hotel and Zadies Restaurant the second Wednesday of every month and that's where I think I first met Mitchell and Fair for Split Second, so

speaker-1 (24:31.724)
I love that so much. And and that's a perfect segue in. I was gonna ask, when people come to Madison County, where can they experience music tourism? Like what does that road trip look like?

speaker-3 (24:43.948)
there's you can find music in Madison County almost every day of the week somewhere.

speaker-0 (24:49.496)
Yeah, Marshall Marshall really is like I mean, Madison County as a whole for sure, and we're on the other side of the county, so we're sort of bringing it to Spring Creek, which has never really been on the map. But Marshall as it punches so far above its weight musically. And not j I mean, the old time is definitely a big part of it in the legacy of the depot and what Donna Ray and Josh are doing at the jail, but it it

It also has there are so many national touring, well known session musicians who go on tour with massive artists who all live in those hills around Marshall. It's really incredible how much and and like it is, it's it's a it's a town of, you know, a few hundred people and you can see music there every night. And sometimes there'll be two or three shows going on at a night in this tiny little strip of downtown. It's really

speaker-3 (25:45.454)
It's like three blo it feels like. I don't know, I don't not from the city, so I'm not sure exactly how you would measure a

speaker-0 (25:52.888)
yeah. They're three blocks, yeah.

speaker-3 (25:55.286)
It's de it's all walkable. You know, so like you could be at one show at this one place and be like, Okay, well I'm gonna go down here and grab a chicken sandwich and listen to this band and then I'm gonna pop over to this place and hear some tunes down there. And it's all sorts of like Mitchell said, a wide variety of music.

You know, and in in Mars Hill there's you know, Camden's coffee house I think. There's a brewery there where you can find music there as well. Mars Hill College has several events that they put on throughout the year where you can find music and dancing.

speaker-0 (26:26.558)
And hot spring hot springs.

speaker-3 (26:28.588)
Yeah, Hot Springs has Big Pillow, the brewery down there and there are all sorts of bands and things that play there as well. And then Phillips store The Artisan. They also have bands that will come or well, maybe not not as it wouldn't be as big of a musical event, but they'll do like pop up shows and things like that from time to time. But they're you know, and and Rare Bird in Spring Creek. You can find shows there as well. So it's sort of all over the place. I mean, it's l literally the music is everywhere and

I think one of my favorite things about the ballad singing is it's like one of the you know, I say the ballads are one of the main veins and the roots of the music that you hear today. That's right. Like my family shares one of the oldest unbroken oral non indigenous traditions in the United States. And so Cecil Sharp, English folklorist Cecil Sharp came through the Appalachian Mountains in nineteen sixteen. And when he came through Madison County in particular

He said that the people in that area were more likely to sing than they were to talk. And that the music there, the songs that he collected there were more pure and untouched than even the ones that he was finding back home ev you know, in in the British Isles. And so, you know, I think that that kinda says a lot about Madison County. It's very well known for his music traditions, but also it just has kind of stayed that way. It's been a very musical community, you know, for a long, long time.

And now just incorporating, you know, different types of music into that. And and also art. There's lots you can find art being made. Crafting is going on all over the place. There are really cool stores. I mean, it's just a magical place, it really is.

speaker-1 (28:09.046)
It sounds magical. I can't wait to come visit.

speaker-3 (28:11.628)
Yeah, you gotta come. You gotta come. And we have lots of places that people can stay. there's places all over the you know, there's the old Marshall Gel Hotel and Zadies Restaurant, which is where we do the ballot swap. There are several rooms there, that have, you know, it's like their suites and there are bunk rooms and it's a really cool place. Then there's the Marshall House that's right up the hill. There all sorts of Airbnbs obviously all over the place here. And, you know, it's just it's a really it's a really sweet spot. You have to come. You gotta visit.

speaker-1 (28:41.87)
So what are y'all looking forward to right now? What's coming up for the farm and the books and the performances?

speaker-0 (28:49.906)
Wow, and definitely the books. I mean, we're we are head first right now into trying to get Sheila K. Adams book out. It's we actually have a porch party planned at her house on October 9th, which will be the launch of it. And then a really busy week, the last week of October, where South Arts is gonna be here in Madison County and the American Folklore Society is gonna be in Asheville and Sheila's doing some book events with that and

a couple of bookstore events and alloprops and plot hound and then the first weekend of November, Nestle Seen Birds is gonna be at the Brooklyn Folk Festival and Sound Archive Books got a table there to be able to promote the book. So we're kind of head first in that right now. And I I you know, I I would give like a huge shout out to to the Madison County Tourism Development because I think they really have embraced this idea of music

Tourism. They've embraced it with Rarebird in helping us fund some of our tiny festivals. I mean, the one we just did, we had four hundred people here over the course of the weekend and over forty percent of were from out of state. And if you knew how in the middle of nowhere this place was, that is a remarkable accomplishment. But you know, we couldn't do it without them. And you know, it did get all the Airbnbs around here run it out, which generates more, you know, accommodations tax, which gives more money to

Do more things like this. So it's I think they understand that virtuous circle of that. Good. And I think we also, I mean, Don Ray could talk a little more about it too, but I think we have, you know, we actually, the lady from the Cecil Sharp, the English Spoken Dance Society is part of Sheila's book. We did an oral history interview with her for the book. And I think she's very interested in trying to get the Nessa singing bird. Sheila Kay did visit over there once. She met her once, but she didn't sing. And so I think there's an effort afoot.

to try to get Nestini birds back over to the UK and I think one of our our conversation with the Madison County Tourism Development is that if there are is if there's a group of people that would want to visit Madison County, the members of the English folk and dance society would be it and they could come here and do like a Cecil Sharp tour and all this sort of stuff. So I think I don't know. We're trying to conjure that's

speaker-0 (31:14.06)
But the book coming out I think is a big part of it and that should be

speaker-3 (31:17.506)
True. And the re you know, the the thing with Sound Archive books and Sheila's book kind of was just like a no brainer for me, you know. Like Sheila has this incredible history and story behind her and she's just sort of a force of nature. Like she's she really is a national treasure. That's you know, and I call her the folk music goddess. That's what I that's what I've like I do call her that all the time. But I think like

You know, everything that the Nest of Singing Birds does, you know, when we're out traveling around, we're talking about Madison County and trying to get people to come and see us. And so, you know, using Sheila's book as a way for people to get sort of like an inside. Her book is gonna be really cool because there's gonna be some stuff that people have never seen before. Like these are her personal things that she has, you know, brought out and has never shared really with the world. And so it's gonna be a little bit of a a mix of different things, but you know

just trying to get people to visit, but it's also like the the touring that we're doing with the book is gonna be we're gonna be even if it's not like a scheduled thing with Sound Archive books, like we're gonna talk about the book. We're gonna talk about Madison County at all of our shows. And I I know that we've got a lot of stuff coming up, you know, outside of just the stuff that we're doing with Sound Archive books. We're gonna be where I think we're coming to Macin, y'all. I think we I just got confirmation that we're coming to making in October. So Okay, good.

Yeah, so we're gonna be in Knoxville and down in Macon and again over in like the eastern part of the state here, North Carolina Hop and John Festival. So lots of different things and William and I are doing ADL fests this weekend, which is sort of like Asheville's new Bel Share in a way. That's kinda how I feel about it. but it just incorporates all the venues and stuff. But at the end of the day, you know, we're from Madison County and that's our

That's our spot, so we're always gonna be repping. Although I do tell people about making an H and H all the time.

speaker-1 (33:15.189)
As you should. As you should.

speaker-3 (33:16.692)
First talk about it to everybody. I tell everybody to go down there.

speaker-1 (33:20.45)
Just not a better way to start your day than H and H. Well.

speaker-3 (33:23.086)
Or end your afternoon. I agree.

speaker-1 (33:28.408)
I would do I'd do a lot of things for that squash guys roll.

speaker-3 (33:32.002)
Good. I can't wait. Mitchell, you're gonna have to go.

speaker-0 (33:34.35)
I'm ready. I'm ready. We're we're actually I'm trying I've been actually working with Hubble Beasley over at Capricorn and we're trying to organize what would be really interesting and right up your lane too, calling it the Panic Memory Project where we've at Capricorn would Yes. Yeah. So I think it's I don't know, it's in the works. There's it's it's in the works for

speaker-1 (33:35.394)
Talking you into it right now.

speaker-0 (33:59.042)
We just have wanna coordinate with the band and make sure we're not playing it for a weekend when they're having a show and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, hopefully sometime in February next year right now we're looking at. So that'll maybe I'll make a little scouting trip down there and then hopefully be there in February.

speaker-3 (34:14.06)
I wanna come. Can I come on the I just wanna I'm gonna can I be a I'll be a sidekick, I'll carry your bags or whatever. I would do that for H and H animation.

speaker-0 (34:24.214)
Worth it.

speaker-3 (34:25.24)
It's yeah, it's that good.

speaker-1 (34:27.734)
Thank so much for this conversation today and telling us more about Madison County and rare bird farms and all the fun things you're it getting into, Donna Ray. And I can't wait to see all this come to fruition and then I'm gonna have to come visit and y'all will have to come here. So road trips for everybody.

speaker-0 (34:45.376)
Love a roads. Nice nice sister city relationship for sure. I like it.

speaker-1 (34:50.968)
That's right. That's right. Well, thank you both for being here with us for the sound and soul of the South and just talking more about the storyline of the music of the southern part of the US.

speaker-3 (35:03.436)
Mm-hmm. Thank you so much for having us.

speaker-0 (35:06.008)
Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

speaker-2 (35:10.466)
Okay, so first off, great job, Susie. Great job. that was a great conversation with Donald Ray and Mitchell, talking about all the great things. Rebird Farm, it seems like it is just a beautiful place, as he said, to make to not only go play, but as he was talking about wanting to do in a little while, have an artist residency out there, which I feel like would be great to write music in.

speaker-1 (35:32.93)
Well, you know, after that conversation, now there's no way I can't not go visit. Yeah. Like I'm going to have to go see this from my own two eyes and experience this music come to life. and I can't wait to to read more about the books and and hear more about the music. And it just there again, Madison County, North Carolina sounds like one of those places that the music comes from.

speaker-2 (35:58.572)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does. And and it's good to know that, you know, no matter where you are in the South, there are pockets of this country that you might not think have a deep and wide ranging current music scene. And even though you have a lot of these artists, you know, doing these Appalachian ballads and the nest of the singing birds as Donna Ray was talking about, you have these historical things, but there's a live music scene down there. And when she said you could hear music pretty much any night of the week in Madison, there are big cities in this country.

that would die for that kind of concert lineup. And they have it right there in Madison County. So that's right. shout out to Mitchell, shout out to Donna Ray for everything that they're doing. Thank you so yes, they are. That's exactly what they're doing. and once again it's just another example of what you can experience when you travel in the South and do this little music tourism thing. It's a great thing. You can learn a lot and hear some great music at the same time. So with that being said, thank you Mitchell and Donna Ray once again. Thank you, Susie Cowan, for the great interview once again.

And until next week, I am Charles Davis. She is Susie Cowan. We'll see y'all next time.