“Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition”
Bristol, Tenn./Va. (January 4, 2018) – Radio Bristol’s popular Farm and Fun Time live variety show pays tribute to Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition, a 32-song album released in 2017 to support the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The program will feature performances by some of the artists who recorded on the album, including Amythyst Kiah, Elizabeth LaPrelle, John Lilly, and Farm and Fun Time house band Bill and the Belles. The ETSU Old Time Ramblers will also perform.
Farm and Fun Time takes place on Thursday, January 10 at 7:00 p.m. EST at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum; doors open at 6:30 p.m. and guests are asked to be seated by 6:50 p.m. There are only a handful of tickets available if you wish to be part of the live studio audience; tickets to this special program are $35 plus tax and fees.
The Appalachian ballad tradition is alive and thriving among a new generation of artists, many of whom learned the songs directly from an oral tradition, either from older singers, from recordings, or both. Big Bend Killing brings these powerful songs to people who may never have had the opportunity to hear them. A wide range of artists were assembled to record the album, including Rosanne Cash, Carter Family descendant Dale Jett ft. Hello Stranger, seventh-generation ballad singer, storyteller, and claw-hammer banjo player Sheila Kay Adams, renowned old-time and bluegrass artist Alice Gerrard, and many more.
Farm and Fun Time features a variety of segments including jingles written and performed by Bill and the Belles, a farm report, an heirloom recipe segment, and nationally touring artists. A revival of the former WCYB radio program that aired from downtown Bristol in the 1940s and 1950s, Radio Bristol’s Farm and Fun Time is original programming the entire family will enjoy.
Radio Bristol can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on 100.1 FM in the Bristol area, online at ListenRadioBristol.org, and through the station’s free mobile app. You may also viewFarm and Fun Time on Radio Bristol’s Facebook Live at Facebook.com/WBCMRadioBristol. To purchase tickets and for more information on concerts and programming, visit our Events page.