An Evening at The Carter Family Fold

That brings us to Saturday, and our search for the origins of the Carter Family. We started the trip by having lunch at the Riverside Restaurant, an excellent seafood grill in Kingsport. Sally had a very nice jumbo (yummy) shrimp stuffed with crab meat, while I dived into a hamburger (no, not literally). We had a table on the patio overlooking the River Holsten. We then drove north over the state line into Virginia (another first for us), into the wilds of the Appalachian Mountains and sought out the place where the Carter Family lived and worked. A.P. Carter’s store still stands and the old homestead where he was born and raised has been moved to the same place. We took the long route to get there. Two valleys run side by side. Poor Valley is a dry limestone valley with high limestone ridges on either side (one of them is Clinch Mountain), with only a very small stream, but it had the railway (because it was straight). It was called Poor Valley, because everyone in it was poor. Parallel to it, is Little Valley, which has a big river which meanders quite incredibly in and out of rocky sandstone hills and outcrops. This valley had water, but is so twisty that you have to travel miles to get quite short distances. The Carters actually were raised in Little Valley, but moved over to Poor Valley when A.P. Carter started his general store. We really enjoyed motoring up the Little Valley, on a quiet road which hugged the river bank, then crossing into Poor Valley to get to Mace Springs, where the Carter Family Fold is.
As evening came on, the quiet country village started to fill and cars now lined the narrow country road. When the car park became full, people parked in adjoining fields. We went in to the show building and were immediately greeted by a couple of ladies I had met the previous evening. They waved aside my money and took us to seats they had reserved for us. Then began an evening of great bluegrass music by the Big Country Bluegrass Band. Most amazing of all was that as soon as the music started up, people streamed on to the concrete floor in front of the stage and began to dance. Most were wearing taps. What a great night. People came up to us and talked to us. There were kids all over the place, one woman even danced with her dog!! There was a food stand where we could buy BBQ pork sandwiches and Alison’s Homemade Potato Soup and crackers, amongst other things. Well, we had a great time. We were always conscious that we were in the heartland and capital city of mountain music. We drove home happy and tired.
Here is a great video of the evening on youtube
And also some pictures of our day