Returning Home, Ballad Singers And Storytellers Across Appalachia

This week’s episode is all about ballad singers and storytellers. We’ll hear an interview with West Virginia native Becca Spence Dobias who wrote a novel called ‘On Home.’ And co-host Mason Adams sits down with ballad singer Elizabeth LaPrelle, who grew up in Rural Retreat, Virginia. As longtime performers and new parents, she and her husband took to Facebook Live, posting weekly livestreams of lullabies and stories. We’ll also hear about a song called “Tom Dooley,” which was first released shortly after the Civil War. It resurfaced 60 years ago, when it topped the Billboard charts. It had everything: A love triangle, a grisly murder, a manhunt, and a hanging. Folkways reporter Heather Duncan set out to explore why ballads like Tom Dooley, based on real tragedies and real people, have such staying power.