![]() ![]() Musicians Carl Jones and Erynn Marshall live in Galax, Virginia. ![]() “It’s just a big four day party on a beautiful farm in the middle of Wales.” Ībove: Listen to Ben McManus play banjo. “A river runs right through the middle of it, so just a lot of chilling out, and just music everywhere, folk music everywhere,” he said. McManus said it is the closest thing to Clifftop that he has found. It includes a growing group of musicians in Wales who are also interested in the music of Appalachia. In Wales, there is another music festival, called Fire in the Mountain, named after an Appalachian fiddle tune. He took fiddle classes at the Augusta Heritage Center in Elkins and played at the Clifftop Appalachian Stringband Festival, a world-renowned old-time music celebration in southern West Virginia, which has been going on for 30 years. McManus fell in love with Appalachian string music so much, he eventually traveled to West Virginia to learn more from the musicians here. In fact, the string music played here in Appalachia has cultural roots from all over northern Africa, Europe and the British Isles - including Wales. McManus searched for similar music, and that led him to Appalachian old-time, which is older than bluegrass. “And I was just like, ‘wow, what is this music?’” Clifftop is an old-time music festival in southern West Virginia. “I came back from high school one day, and the gardener’s were playing bluegrass, like really loudly out of a boombox,” McManus said. He grew up playing instruments, but as a teenager, he was instantly captivated when he heard music from Appalachia. Wales And Appalachian Old-Timeīen McManus is a musician who lives in Aberystwyth, Wales. There is a growing community of musicians from both Wales and Appalachia who share an interest in the culture that binds them together. Both regions have mountainous landscapes, a history of coal extraction, folktales and it turns out, music. As part of West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia folkways project, Appalachia’s unique connection to Wales has been explored. ![]()
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