The Deitz Family, 2006
Members of Jackson County’s Deitz Family band receive the 2006 Mountain Heritage Award at Western Carolina University’s 32nd annual Mountain Heritage Day held Saturday (Sept. 30). Family members were presented the award by WCU Provost Kyle Carter (far left) and...Arvil Freeman, 2007
Above: Renowned Western North Carolina fiddler Arvil Freeman of Weaverville (left) received WCU’s Mountain Heritage Award. The award was presented by Scott Philyaw, director of WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center and chairman of Mountain Heritage Day. Mountain Heritage...
Mountain Dance and Folk Festival
In 1928, Bascom Lamar Lunsford turned his vast knowledge of traditional music and his organizational skills to the creation of a local music festival. The Asheville Chamber of Commerce had long sponsored an annual Rhododendron Festival, highlighting mountain arts and crafts. . .
Banjo
The banjo, a four or five string musical instrument with a leather or plastic head stretched over a circular wooden rim, is pictured by many as the symbol of Appalachian music. . .
Tonya Carroll (B.A., 2007 M.A., 2009) with Bruce Frazier (Carol Grotnes Belk Endowed Professor in Commercial & Electronic Music) in the recording studio.