The Crooked Road refers to an area within the Appalachian region of Southwestern Virginia with a deep rooted, rich, and unique musical heritage.  It is a place where the local music is a part of the fabric of family and community life, a place where your mail carrier appears on weekend nights playing guitar accompained by the waitress from Joe’s Diner on bass, the 14 year old eighth grade whiz kid on fiddle, and a mandolin player who builds hand crafted instruments for his day job.  Through “The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Music Heritage Trail” founded in January 2003, the tradition is being preserved and has even been spun off into a means of generating much needed tourism and economic development. 

The “Trail” meanders along the rural Appalachian Mountains through scattered towns and several small cities tying the region together.  With help from folks like Jon Lohman, the official Folklorist of the State of Virginia, the tradition is not only being preserved regionally but the Crooked Road has begun to meander northward to an auditorium near you.  A special selection of Crooked Road musicians will appear in concert at Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Berkner Hall Auditorium on Friday, March 26.  

The evening will also feature a special guest appearance by recording stars Jonny Clutch and the Jambusters.  Discovered by folklorist Lohman singing behind the counter and slicing roast beef in a corner deli, Jonny was whisked off to the recording studio where his recent hit album, It Takes One to Know One (CD Baby.com), was rushed into production.

The concert is sponsored by BERA, and tickets are $15 in advance (available at the BERA store in Berkner Hall and Ticketweb.com) and $20 at the door.