The weather forecast seems to change every couple of hours here. I think they just wait to see what happens and then update the forecast in the moment! We grabbed what looked like a break in the rain to drive to the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Parkway. The museum there is small but very interactive and informative! The music here has roots in the small Appalachian communities made up of formerly enslaved people from West and Central Africa, German immigrants and immigrants from Ulster. We were surprised by that last one! They were all farming and relied on each other for community projects like barn raising and also made music together blending the banjo from Africa and the European violin.
Tom discovered in his genealogy research that the Vineyards came to Pennsylvania and then traveled to this area in Virginia. That combined with the Ulster connection has me (Jeannie) thinking I might ask Santa for a banjo cause I know the fiddle is not in my skill set!
We were also surprised to find an exhibit on the town where we are staying, Fries (pronounced Freeze). Fries was a mill town famous for it’s twill, child labor, musicians, and instrument makers. The music tradition remains strong in Fries and the surrounding area. Thankfully, the mill tradition of child labor is long gone.
Local musicians volunteer to play most days in a breezeway outside the museum. Today we were treated to the Fisher Peak Timber Rattlers. Not long after we went out to listen the rain started to come down varying between torrential and pretty darn heavy. It was a magical backdrop to the mountain music! One of the rangers kindly watched the weather promising to let us all know when a break safe for travel appeared and he delivered! We thoroughly enjoyed the musicians and traveled back to Fries in nothing more than a light rain.
