Two views of life in Southern mountains

Prof. Dan Boner, director of the celebrated bluegrass, old-time, and country music degree course at East Tennessee State University, is also a member of the Becky Buller Band and the IBMA board of directors. His latest album, West of West Virginia, with high-powered guest artists, was released on Monday (30 Mar.). Samples of all ten tracks can be heard on his website.

The title song of the album is also the soundtrack music of an eighteen-minute video documentary on living in - and leaving - the West Virginia mountains, centred on the experiences of Dan Boner's father and grandfather. More details of the album and the video can be seen here.

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Another region of the South is warmly portrayed in a photo essay, 'Ozark life' by Terra Fondriest, raised in a Chicago suburb, who moved with her family to a country life in the Ozark Hills (which also, incidentally, produced Frank Ray and his fine bluegrass band Cedar Hill). The essay is published in the Bitter Southerner online magazine.