By Tim Cable
Anchor / WJHL
Published: February 7, 2007

Joe Tennis and I have come to the place where Virginia’s foothills meet the mountains to begin a musical journey..we’re going to tell you all about the straight and narrow on The Crooked Road..and the first place we’re going straight to is: Dairy Queen in Rocky Mount, Virginia where we hear we can get a little jam with our biscuits.

“We have the same band, it’s called, The DQ Band”, says Dairy Queen’s Deborah Russell. “And they just love to get together and jam. And they play every Thursday from September through May from 9 to 10 a.m. The customers love it. People start rolling in, 7:30 in the morning to make sure they get their seat”.

It’s the hottest ticket in town..in the town where they say The Crooked Road begins.

“I believe that we are the beginning of The Crooked Road”, Deborah says.

“Actually, if you’re going to start traveling The Crooked Road, you’d start on route 40 in Rocky Mount going west”, says Roddy Moore, Director of The Blue Ridge Institute.

“We are the eastern gateway of The Crooked Road and have been trying to promote ourselves as that”, according to former Rocky Mount Town Manager, Keith Holland.

You’ll even find Biscuit the Pig out front of Dairy Queen, hamming it up about The Crooked Road.

“We had a hit and run on Biscuit not too long ago”, laughs Deborah.

Make that, a Biscuit to go..as we go on to the next stop on The Crooked Road: The Blue Ridge Institute and Museum at Ferrum College.

“Well, we deal with the entire culture”, says Roddy. “With the folklife of the region”.

And a big part of the folklife that poured out of the Blue Ridge..is moonshining.

“The tradition has been so strong in this region”, says Vaughan Webb of The Institute.

So strong that The Institute opened an exhibit called, “White Liquor, Blue Ridge Style”.

“You can’t whitewash history”, Vaughan says. “It’s the elephant in the living room, it’s the industry that fueled, pumped a lot of money into this region over a long period of time”.

Aside from the shine, The Institute has a massive Appalachian music archive with over 50,000 photographs, oral histories and interviews and over 40,000 songs on either vinyl, tape or disc. Ultimately, that’s what The Crooked Road goes straight back to: the music.

“You cannot take this music out of context”, Roddy adds. “It has to be looked at within the cultural landscape”.

“The Road is bringing attention to our heritage to the traditions of a community of Southwest Virginia”, says Keith. “It brings folks in and allows them to enjoy the people and the places”.

“Music plays a role in a lot of these events”, according to Roddy.

“The music is a common theme throughout”, Keith says. “You can turn over a stone anywhere and find somebody that can play a fiddle and play very well. It’s something very special”.

Next Wednesday in part 2, we meander our way down to Floyd..home of the Floyd Country Store and the Friday Night Jamboree.
For more information on The Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail, go to http://www.thecrookedroad.org