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Article: West Virginia is the mother lode of music, The W.Va. Music Hall of Fame is long, long overdue
- Article from:
- Charleston Daily Mail
- Article date:
- November 16, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2007 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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FOR most of its history, West Virginia has been exporting its
music to the remainder of America.
We've only been exporting our natives seriously for 50 years or
so, but our music?
It has been leaving, tune by tune, to grateful Americans for
longer than that.
West Virginia, not Nashville, should have been the home of
country music. In the nascent days of radio, the state was awash
with live country music shows in such places as Fairmont, Wheeling,
Huntington and Charleston.
Why?
Because the state was awash with native musicians, and music was
a mainstay of the original culture.
Slowly but surely, many of the talented West Virginia musicians
packed their fiddles, banjoes and guitars and moved ...