James Faye Hall, better known as Roy Hall, was born in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, in 1921.  He died in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee in 1984.
  
Between those dates is a story about a hillbilly boogie pianist who played for Uncle Dave Macon in a traveling version of the Grand Ole Opry as a child, formed his own hillbilly/R&B band. He found success in Detroit, worked as a session musician for such Nashville stars as Webb Pierce, Marty Robbins and Red Foley, and was on the very cusp of stardom as a rockabilly act in the 1950s, only to have it slip away from him. 

Oh, by the way, he’s also credited by many to have co-written “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” which made Jerry Lee Lewis a rock and roll legend.  

Join us as we tell the fascinating story of Roy Hall, another one of the Stories of Appalachia.
 
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We’ve told the story of labor conflicts from Harlan, Kentucky to Blair Mountain, West Virginia. This week, we tell a story that’s not set in the Kentucky or West Virginia coalfields, but in Western North Carolina. It’s the story of the 1906 “Tally War,” a violent clash between Italian railroad laborers and company officials of contractors for the South and Western Railroad, which was building their railroad through the North Carolina mountains.  Between Spruce Pine and Marion, North Carolina, a violent confrontation erupted over a wage dispute and the harsh conditions in the railroad construction camps that ended in an international incident between the United States and Italy.

It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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A once thriving lumber and mill town in the mountains of western North Carolina, Mortimer rose fast, becoming prosperous…until it was washed away twice in massive flooding events.

Shortly after a 1916 wildfire burned large tracts of timberland in the mountains,  two hurricanes struck the area back to back, causing historic floods not seen again in the area until Helene in 2024, nearly wiping out the town.

The people of Mortimer made a comeback driven by textile work and the CCC, until a final blow came from another flood in 1940. Today little remains of Mortimer along Wilson Creek. 

Mortimer’s story is another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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This week Steve and Rod tell the story of a Christmas morning that ended in heartbreak instead of celebration.

In 1882, a passenger train and a freight engine collided near Millboro, Virginia, killing six crewmen and scalding the lone surviving passenger. How this tragedy occurred, the story of the men who paid the price along with that of the injured passenger, is another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

John Pemberton Gatewood was a notorious Confederate bushwhacker/guerrilla leader.  

Born in Fentress County, Tennessee, in 1844, Gatewood's life took a dark turn after a Union attack on his family led him to abandon the Confederate army and become a guerrilla fighter. Leading his own unit in north Georgia and known as the long-haired, red-bearded beast, Gatewood was driven by his thirst for revenge after the brutal assault on his family.  

John Pemberton Gatewood, a figure whose story is another one of the Stories of Appalachia. 

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Major Lewis Redmond’s story sounds like it comes from a 19th century dime novel.  He was a Carolina moonshiner, an outlaw and, thanks to actually being in some of those dime novels after the Civil War, a folk hero.
 
His killing of a U. S. Marshal led to a life on the run across North and South Carolina, making Redmond a legend.  Today we tell his story.
 
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In 1955, at the age of 67, Emma Gatewood became the first woman to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine. In this episode, Steve and Rod tell the story of her remarkable journey from a childhood in rural Ohio, through years of hardship and abuse, to the day this grandmother stepped onto the trail with nothing but a sack, a shower curtain, and an iron will. Her hike captured America’s attention, inspiring generations of hikers.

It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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In 1909, a Johnson City businessman named A.J. Slagle was lured by promises of buried Spanish gold hidden in a Cocke County house. What began as a desperate bid to recover from business losses ended in a murder, the body tossed into the French Broad River.

Join Steve and Rod as they tell a true story of greed, deception, and a treasure that never existed, a case that shocked East Tennessee and became another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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Four years after the Hillsville courthouse shootout shocked Virginia, another one of the Allen brothers met a violent end. Jack Allen, brother of Floyd Allen, and once a constable in that Carroll County courtroom, was shot and killed in 1916 at a roadhouse near Mt. Airy, North Carolina. His killer, 24-year-old Will McCraw, claimed self-defense and was acquitted.

But the story doesn’t stop there.

McCraw may not have been a stranger to Jack Allen’s family and some believe he was nudged into the confrontation by men with unfinished business from Hillsville.

In this episode, Steve and Rod follow the trail from the courtroom to the roadhouse, tracing rumors of revenge, Baldwin-Felts detectives and a possible family connection to the killer.

It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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After the Civil War, thousands of defeated Confederates refused to live under the Union flag. Instead, they packed up their families and headed for new lives in South America in a Confederate exodus from the United States.

One of them was Ezekiel B. Pyles, a young man from the mountains of north Georgia, who rode with General John Hunt Morgan’s raiders, fought across East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and was captured at the Battle of Kingsport before becoming part of Jefferson Davis’ guard as he fled Richmond at the end of the Civil War.  

His story didn’t end there, for he joined around 20,000 other Southerners who migrated to Brazil to start over.  

In this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of Pyles’ incredible journey — from the hills of Appalachia to the colony of Americana. 
 
It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

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In August 1925, two years before the famed Bristol Sessions, Ralph Peer and Okeh Records set up a temporary studio on the rooftop of Asheville’s brand-new Vanderbilt Hotel.

Over ten sweltering days, local musicians cut sixty test records, capturing the raw sounds of traditional Appalachian ballads, banjo tunes, and old songs. Though often overlooked, these Asheville sessions lit the spark that would explode two years later in Bristol, igniting the Big Bang of country music.

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This Halloween marks 10 years of stories from Rod and Steve; to mark the holiday and our tenth anniversary, we’re going to take you deep into the dark side of Appalachia with two chilling tales from southwest Virginia.
 
First, Steve tells the story of three strange sisters who ran girls’ schools in Murfreesboro and Christiansburg—women whispered to be linked to evil spirits and who eventually faced justice for a terrible crime. Some say their spirits still haunt the ground where their school stood in Christiansburg over a hundred years ago.
 
Then, Rod shares the legend of two cunning sisters from Scott County, whose greed and cruelty led to a savage end. Their ghosts are said to still haunt the cemetery where they were denied burial.

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Happy Halloween, y’all!

We’ve told hundreds of stories about Appalachia, but few are as bizarre as the night a Kentucky drug smuggler named Andrew Thornton II fell to his death during a smuggling run over south Knoxville, Tennessee back in 1985. Join Steve and Rod as they tell the incredible story of a decorated police officer and practicing lawyer who led a double life as a major drug smuggler and the connections between this run and an incident with a black bear in north Georgia that would eventually inspire a well-known Hollywood movie.

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In July, 1912, a joyful Fourth of July outing on a mountain turned into a tragedy when a crowded passenger coach collided head-on with a massive coal train on the Wilpen Branch of the Ligonier Valley Railroad in Pennsylvania. The wooden coach was crushed between engines, killing 27 and injuring over 30, many of them young children.

This week, Steve and Rod tell the story of that crash and the haunting aftermath in the town of Ligonier.

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In November 1861, a secret band of East Tennessee Unionists struck at the heart of Confederate supply lines by burning railroad bridges across the region. They believed the Union army would soon march in to liberate them, but it didn’t happen. Instead, Confederate authorities unleashed brutal retaliation, hanging several of the men, while others barely escaped with their lives. In this episode, we tell the story of the East Tennessee bridge burners, the risks they took and the terrible cost they paid.
 
It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia.
 
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This week, we wrap up our commemoration of the first anniversary of Hurricane Helene by talking with Mitchell County’s David Biddix, who documented the effects of the storm and its aftermath in that hard-hit part of North Carolina. From his home in Spruce Pine to small communities like Poplar, and along the Nolichucky where CSX rail lines were washed away, he shares what he saw as the area endured the flooding of September 2024.

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When Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina a year ago, it left behind washed-out roads, flooded homes, and communities cut off from each other. For first responders, the storm was more than just a headline, it was a fight to save lives.

In this episode of Stories of Appalachia, we sit down with Kevin Behm, a firefighter and first responder with the Nebo Fire Station in McDowell County, North Carolina, who lives in Marion. Kevin was on duty the night Helene hit and in the days that followed. He shares what it was like working that night and on the days that followed, navigating road closures and flooding and seeing firsthand how his neighbors pulled together in the aftermath of the storm.

It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia.

Thank you for listening.

On the first anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s flooding in Appalachia, Rod and Steve share the story of Maria True, general manager of Jet Broadcasting in Erwin, Tennessee. When the Nolichucky River overflowed, it destroyed the studios and AM tower of WEMB and WXIS, along with family belongings tied to her and her late father and former station owner, Jim True. In this episode, Maria talks about the impact of the flood, the recovery in Erwin, and her plans for the future of the stations. 

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Thank you for listening.

In July 1944, a troop train packed with new Army recruits derailed near Jellico, Tennessee, plunging into Clear Fork River. Thirty-five soldiers died and ninety-one were injured. In this episode, Steve and Rod tell the story of how Tennessee prepared for World War II and the one tragic night that brought the war home to Appalachia.

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In 1919, a nitroglycerin explosion near Torrent, Kentucky, killed four men and leveled a factory. Today we tell the story of that tragedy and the explosive history of oil well “torpedoes” in Appalachia.

It’s another one of the Stories of Appalachia. Be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast if you haven’t done so already. 

You’ll find us wherever you get your favorite podcasts.