What Dreamers Do
Hi, I’m Carla Gover, an Appalachian musician, flatfoot dancer, mama, and DREAMER from Kentucky. I'm on a mission to share fierce love, good humor, and inspiration to help you live a life of creative freedom. I decided to start the What Dreamers Do Podcast to help answer the question: How can we use our gifts and talents to build a better world, and have fun along the way? You’ll also find musings about Appalachia as well as interesting conversations with songwriters, poets, dancers, educators, world-changers, social justice warriors, and other people like you who are working to make a difference using their art, their skills, or just the way they live their lives. On every episode, you’ll hear ideas, conversations, and actionable items to help you unlock your creativity and live your purpose. Grab a mason jar full of sweet tea (or something a little stronger) and pull up a chair, cause it’s time to get YOUR dream on!
What Dreamers Do
The Wilderness Road: Stories, Songs, and Dance in Kentucky’s Past and Present
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Long before Daniel Boone was hired to widen it for the Transylvania Company, the path now known as the Wilderness Road existed as the Warrior's Path — a route traveled for centuries by Cherokee, Shawnee, and other Indigenous nations. In this episode, I follow that trail from Cumberland Gap (just a few miles from where I grew up in Whitesburg, Kentucky) all the way to Lexington, where I live now.
This is a story about music, memory, and what it means to be a tradition-bearer who holds grief and remembrance along with celebration and pride.
We talk about:
- The history of the Wilderness Road and what it meant for the people who traveled it and the people who were already there
- The Indigenous, African, and European musical traditions that braided together along this trail to create what we now call Appalachian music
- Kentucky fiddlers and banjo players who carried these tunes forward, such as Estill Bingham, Morgan Sexton, and Dori Mae Wagers
- The Trail of Tears song by Walker Calhoun, and how music carries stories across generations
- Why I named my summer dance camp after this road, and what it means to me personally
- My Appalachian Music and Dance Manifesto — why I dance, who I dance for, and what this tradition means in 2026
Music featured in this episode: Cumberland Gap and other traditional tunes from along the Wilderness Road, courtesy of John Harrod, The Hamblen Collection, JuneAppal Records, and Berea College Special Collections.
Links mentioned:
What Dreamers Do is hosted by Carla Gover, 8th-generation Kentuckian, traditional musician, Master Artist, and dance educator. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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