On the Blue Ridge
On the Blue Ridge is a podcast featuring conversations with people making an imprint on the Blue Ridge Mountains in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Guests include writers, artists, makers, chefs, visionaries, entrepreneurs, and citizens living in and around the region.
On the Blue Ridge
7: Aaron Stone on Capturing ‘The Resonance Sessions’
Aaron Stone is a filmmaker and photographer based in Asheville, and one of the many creative forces behind “The Resonance Sessions,” an upcoming album featuring dozens of regional musicians to benefit the music scene in Marshall, North Carolina, a town devastated by catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene.
As director and producer for Parkway Studios—a creative team that includes Bridger Dunnagan and Caroline Aylward—Aaron has built a diverse portfolio of multimedia projects featuring local musicians. The latest project, “The Resonance Sessions,” is a deeply collaborative effort set for release in March. Recorded live in the stairwell of the Old Marshall Jail—a historic building turned hotel and bar that weathered Helene—the album captures raw and heartfelt performances, with net proceeds going to the Madison Arts Council and Rare Birds Cultural Arts.
In this episode, Aaron shares how the album took shape; insights into the emotional nature of the songs, including samples of a few tracks; the challenges and rewards of documenting these sessions, his perspective on the current music scene in Asheville; and more.
“The Resonance Sessions”
Preorder the album on Bandcamp
Tracks from “The Resonance Sessions” in this Episode
“Hard Times, Sore Eyes” by The Dead Tongues (Watch a video)
“Sailing Away” by River Whyless
“Motherfountain” by Soft Talk
“The Landslide (1916 Flood)” by William Ritter
“Fine Sally” by Donna Ray Norton
More of Aaron’s Work
Also Mentioned
In the grooves of the vinyl record that people will be able to physically hold in their hand are going to be etched the sounds of the town of Marshall being cleaned out way off in the background, with this music performance layered on top of it. So you'll literally be able to hold into your hand kind of a time capsule of when Marshall as a town was literally physically digging itself out from this flood.
Speaker 3:Today on the Blue Ridge, our guest is Aaron Stone, a filmmaker and photographer based in Asheville and one of the many creative forces behind the Resonance Sessions, an upcoming album featuring dozens of regional musicians to benefit the music scene in Marshall, a town devastated by catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene. I'm your host, john Page, let's begin. Aaron grew up in a small town in western New York and his love for music, especially guitar, took root in the fourth grade. He developed a passion for videography on climbing and canoe expeditions across the globe, and he merged his creative pursuits after moving to Asheville in 2021. As director and producer for Parkway Studios, a creative team that includes Bridger Dunagan and Caroline Aylward, aaron has built a diverse portfolio of multimedia projects featuring local musicians.
Speaker 3:The latest project, the Resonance Sessions, is a deeply collaborative effort set for release in March, recorded live in the stairwell of the Old Marshall Jail, a historic building turned hotel and bar that weathered Helene a historic building turned hotel and bar that weathered Helene. The album captures 35 raw and heartfelt performances in the wake of Helene's devastation. Aaron credits Clay White, a local musician and a producer on the album, for bringing the artists together and asking each to prepare a song that resonated with them after the storm and asking each to prepare a song that resonated with them after the storm. The result is a hauntingly beautiful audio time capsule recorded just three weeks after Helene's floodwaters receded. Let's listen now to a portion of the song Hard Times, sore Eyes by the Dead Tongues.
Speaker 1:Hard times and sore eyes, Sore Eyes by the Dead Tongues. Miss you there. Oh, taking me.
Speaker 3:Aaron filmed each performance and the album will be pressed by Asheville-based Citizen Vinyl Net. Proceeds will benefit the Madison Arts Council, supporting the county's musical community, and Rare Birds Cultural Arts funding a grant program for musicians impacted by the storm. You can find links to order the album at bandcampcom, on theblueridgepodcom and in our show notes, where you can also find a link to watch that performance by the Dead Tongues. Later in this episode we'll explore a few more tracks from the album, diving into the stories behind them. Aaron also discusses the challenges and rewards of documenting these sessions and his perspective on the current music scene in Asheville. To start, here's Aaron on his own experience with Helene and the genesis of the Resonance Sessions.
Speaker 2:My studio space that I had was along the French Broad River. Luckily it was on the third floor and so it was in the River Mills District. And the first morning when I finally saw the river arts district I walked. I live in west asheville and I walked to the river arts district and looked down and when I saw that river I was like whoa, like the. It kind of gave me like vertigo in a sense, like world being flipped upside down kind of thing. But I was kind of worried for my studio all of a sudden too. And I started seeing and I was like, holy moly, my whole life of camera equipment and my my, you know, livelihood is in this building. And I was like looking at the banks and I was like if the water's this high here, it funnels a little bit more and would fin like is it going to crest over that? Luckily it did, did not.
Speaker 2:But the building was not accessible for the first few days because there was water completely surrounding it and I didn't want to wade into the water to try to get up to the studio to save any camera gear. So two things happened in that moment. One I didn't feel the urge to film or photograph anything. That's not the feeling that came over me. I was too close to the storm and too like kind of devastated and also like my adrenaline was surging and, like you know, everyone's trying to help and I'm just trying to fit into like doing physical tasks rather than emotional, documenting kind of tasks. And two, the camera was inaccessible. I could not get to my cameras none of them and so you know, it just kind of like made the decision up for me and eventually the water went down. I was able to get my cameras out of there, but for the first 10 days it was really like hands on, doing everything else that I could. Literally no form of communication or documentation went on. Literally no form of communication or documentation went on. And right around the ninth day I was helping my friends with like a shipment of stuff that we had gotten from Beloved Asheville and we were taking it out to this Baptist church out near like Swannanoa or something out there. And we got there and it was just like there were other cars of people doing the same thing and everyone was like helping and there were systems in place. By the ninth day it felt like okay, like this community is really doing strong work and like we're all coming together and we're all helping, and I kind of that evening was like, okay, like I think my like general form of helping, you know is has played a great role, and I felt like, ok, it's time to like what's your niche way of helping, what is kind of like something specific to my skill sets that I could apply to the situation, which kind of turned itself into filming and documenting and that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Immediately, I text Josh Kopis from the Old Marshall Jail, who's the owner of the Old Marshall Jail Hotel and ZD's restaurant in that area. And it was just like, hey, I think enough time has gone by. I don't know how do you feel about this. I could come into Marshall tomorrow. I just want to, you know, interview you and try to get the local perspective of the storm out. You know, it's like whatever it looks like doesn't matter. Are you cool with that? And he was like, yeah, meet me there in the morning tomorrow. So that was October 6th, that I was texting him October 7th.
Speaker 2:I go down and I get there super early and I watch the sun come up over Marshall, and it was just a really powerful experience. I was, you know, I had all the gear on and the mask because I wasn't sure what was going on with the mud down there. No one really knew the real answer yet and I'm just like watching the sun come up. And the week prior to the storm I was there working on a documentary film about traditional music in Madison County that I've been working on for months now leading up to the storm, and so I had just been in Marshall at the old Marshall jail filming and you know, talking to people about traditional music and all this stuff for this documentary project.
Speaker 2:And now I was there by myself in the morning watching the sun come up over this town that was recently destroyed, and it was just like so powerful I mean it was, it was destructive and beautiful and chaotic and still all at once. It was really it was crazy. And so I was there hours before anyone had come into the town that day, walking around by myself, and eventually Josh came into town and I put a microphone on him and we just kind of walked around his jail and he was telling me like crazy stories of like walking into the building after the waters receded enough for him to get there and seeing his coolers flipped upside down and in different rooms, but a tiny little t-shirt on a coat rack had stayed there untouched. Tiny little t-shirt on a coat rack had stayed there untouched. You know just crazy things, like the eye is just playing tricks on you looking at the destruction. It was just like it was crazy and you know.
Speaker 2:So I'm down there talking to him and then he's like you should talk to Joel at Zuma, and I love Zuma for its traditional music. You know background, it's a Blue Ridge Heritage music site and so I go over to Zuma and it's completely gutted and the paper has fallen off the wall and everything. And Joel gives the most heart-wrenching interview and I'm filming him and we're kind of all just crying together. It was just like such a cathartic emotional process of turning the camera on and interviewing someone. And while I'm filming Joel at Zuma Cafe, my friend, donna Rae Norton, who is a eighth generation ballad singer, born and raised Madison County, part of the most historic traditionally music focused family in the region, taps me on the shoulder. This is who I'm working on a documentary with about the traditional music of the region. I didn't know she was going to be down there that morning. She taps me on the shoulder.
Speaker 2:I turn around and it's just like in another world all of a sudden, because we were just down here talking about happy, positive, tradition heritage, and now we're just like in our muck boots, with masks on, looking at each other and, you know, we're kind of crying and hugging each other. And she's with Sheila K Adams, who is, I would consider, like the matriarch of this region's ballad traditions and traditional music and like the bearer of the tradition, the torchbearer, you know, and the two of them together and Josh is there with me and Zuma, and we all kind of together walk back to the jail, we sit down and I had just met this guy, jack Sorokin, who is a filmmaker and photographer, and he had actually coordinated with Donna and Sheila to come down. He was going to interview them, similar to what I was doing. We both kind of had this moment where we looked at each other and we were like, yep, today is the day Like. There was no possibility to do this beforehand, but today is the day Like, and so together we kind of teamed up two cameras. I had my whole mic kit on me, so I mic'd them up and we just started hearing from them and it's it's gut wrenching stuff.
Speaker 2:It's like Sheila K Adams used to teach on the Island in Marshall at the school there back in the day and she got married in the courthouse and she's tearing up and she, out of everyone there, remembers it the most, has the most memories, and it's just like hearing her say that. So she gives this interview. And then she was like well, do you want me to sing a ballad? And I kind of like looked up and Jack and I were like yes, of course, and Josh was like oh, my goodness, like 100% sing a ballad and I write this on the website.
Speaker 2:And it really truly felt like this. It felt like we were in kind of a glitchy black and white film and as soon as she started singing, it was like you could see color come back to her cheeks and you could just see it kind of like the room filling up with color. And you could just see it kind of like the room filling up with color, Like it was surreal and powerful and just so poignant at the time. It was touching. I like even am emotional just thinking about it now, like yeah, and she sang through this ballad. That was like kind of talking about her and her lover, but her lover, at this point it was clear, was Marshall, after giving that interview. And so it was just so powerful to connect place with.
Speaker 2:You know, this performance and when it was over we all just kind of looked at each other just like mouth open, like this is so powerful. I mean, the place is gutted, you know, the drywall is melted off the wall, it's still got mud caked on the ground and it's just like a brick building, and so these words from this ballad were flying through the jail, bouncing off the walls. It's like every brick they touched it went from like a gray brick to a red brick again. All of a sudden it was. You know, it was just really, really powerful and I think we kind of went on with our day filming and that kind of thing. But it was kind of brewing in my head and Josh's head that night and into the next day about like what could this look like? Singing really helps, like singing and emoting and performing and like expressing yourself, something about that was super powerful. That was kind of the initial, the initial experience that got it, the brainwaves moving.
Speaker 3:I'll just say I mean, I'm I'm tearing up a little bit hearing you talk about it and I know I feel like the first three weeks from the storm, maybe maybe that first month just about every day. At some point I was on the verge of tears for whatever reason. But then to be sitting in that kind of situation like you just described, I can only imagine how powerful that would be.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I was a mess. It was like that feeling that we all experienced during COVID when we were wearing masks and it was like you're like kind of getting steamy and I, you know, it was like dark in there and it's like I'm like kind of tearing up and the tears are dripping into the mask and I'm just like I'm met. You know, I'm dusty and muddy from all the mud. It was just it really stripped everyone in that room down from this kind of like headspace that we were in to, just like pure, raw human expression. I mean, it was like it leveled the playing field of everyone's emotion in that room all at once. It was as if, like we were kind of jittery and acting on impulse and then it was like after that it was kind of like calm and just like there was a weight. It was like a weighted blanket was put on us.
Speaker 3:It was both like comforting and like heavy was like a weighted blanket was put on us. It was both like comforting and like heavy, and so how did it evolve from there to, yeah, there's, there's an album that's coming out soon. So, yeah, how, what was that process like of it actually turning into? Okay, this is a thing we should do, and here's how we're gonna make it happen yeah, this is where um clay white enters the scene and clay is a local musician.
Speaker 2:Um, he was booking musicians for the old marshall jails 80s restaurant. They have like a patio there by the river and they were, you know, booked up for months on. I can't remember which night of the week it was, but clay is basically. He's one of those guys that he can just open his phone. He has all the phone numbers of all the musicians in town and he can just send someone a text and be like hey, do you want to play here? And they're in. You know, it's like something. You know he just has that ability to wrangle and just knows everyone.
Speaker 2:I feel like I've every show I've been to in Asheville, clay is there either performing in it or watching it. You know he is like Clay is music in Asheville and so him and he lives in Marshall and so he was down there every day digging out the place, you know, working so hard with nanostead and like getting people fitted for gear and just working so hard physically, you know, on the space. And so after this, you know he messaged me and said hey, josh has already tried I think it was Rising Appalachia or something like that was coming to help and they were going to give a performance for the people, the volunteers working at Nanostead or something. And Clay was like Josh, you know and I have been talking like would you be down to come film Rising Appalachia, perform for the volunteers? And it was like it was in that moment where I was still transitioning from, you know, filming and doing things like I have my wilderness first responder certification. So I was like kind of also going around in this community and kind of doing wellness checks on these old people that had not been cared for and was like kind of helping with Beloved. They had like a little crew of like medic people. So I was like kind of I did the interviewing and recording and then I kind of went back to doing this like on the ground stuff and so I couldn't go film Rising Appalachia.
Speaker 2:But then I finally had a meeting with our studio team and I was like y'all, like this was such a powerful experience. Clay and Josh want to do more, like could we, you know, put our skills to use and record some of these sessions? And then, after that meeting with the team, I got off and I immediately called Clay and I was like let's put this together. Let's just pick two days or something, get as many musicians down there as we can set up like a recording studio in the jail. We'll figure a room whatever room is best in there. Ask Josh if this is something he'd be interested in doing in his building that's destroyed, like I don't want to inhibit his process of cleaning it and like getting it ready immediately. Clay responds back like okay, Josh is in, he thinks it's the best use of space for this building. Like let's plan it. And I was like, okay, these are the dates that we can do it. It was like a few days after this conversation, like let's just go for it.
Speaker 2:And it turned in from a couple days and a couple musicians to four pretty much full days of recording and filming every session, 35 performances. Clay crushed it. He just like you know musicians from black mountain to ashville to marshall to swananoa and everywhere in between. It was really a menagerie of Western North Carolina, just amazing musicians.
Speaker 2:And you know it's like people from you know like that have been doing it for a while, like Tyler Ramsey you know down to you know just someone who does it for fun, who's a ballad singer, who has grown up in the tradition of ballad singing, so the eclectic nature of the performances was just like it felt so fast and free and vulnerable and powerful. It was incredible. I mean, like you know, musicians are showing up in the clothes that they were digging out their places with. You know, like River Wireless came and a couple of the band members had told us that you know they. River Wireless came and a couple of the band members had told us that you know they had to hike up and over a mountain in Swannanoa with their little kids to escape their house because the road had been blocked by trees and things like that. Like you know, through the debris, through the forest, and like they showed up and they, just like, sat on the ground of the jail in the dust and gave us the most harmonious room filling performance Woman, woman sailing away.
Speaker 1:Woman, woman sailing away. I saw your footprints pressed in the clay. Now I'll watch them.
Speaker 2:Watch them wash in the way you know. So it was truly like I believe, cathartic for everyone in the jail watching it. I believe cathartic for everyone in the jail watching it. I believe cathartic for the musicians performing their stuff Like it was. Yeah, it was just a super powerful experience.
Speaker 3:I was going to ask you what kind of challenges you faced, like approaching it as a videographer, and now that I'm thinking about it, I would think one getting a very emotional would be one of those challenges.
Speaker 2:But what were some of those other? Like little rig that I film with. That is a tiny little Sony cinema, like FX series cinema camera and like a, you know, a manual lens and a little motor that can spin the lens and focus, all on this like stabilizing rig, really contained, really compact. I don't want to be presenting in front of these musicians with like this huge big camera thing and like all these things and just like take away from it, you know. So on my end, like physically, I kind of kept a lot of my stuff in the car because everywhere in the jail is dust. That was once mud that dried into dust and we're all walking around in there and kicking it up. And you know there had been no ventilation in the building. You know it was just like we were dealing with that. So for me I just kind of kept my stuff contained.
Speaker 2:I think the real logistical challenge was for the audio folks, like Bridger, who's part of Parkway Studios Bridger Dunnigan was one of the audio engineers and Luke Mitchell from out there recording studios in Marshall. He they both, you know, had XLR cables running. They were in a jail cell like an old jail cell, locked away in this little room with the computer and the audio interface and the headphones and all that stuff, and they ran these XLR cables out and on the ground and you could just see all the audio cables just getting covered in flood dust. And so that was constantly between every take we put bags over the microphone so that the dust didn't get into the capsules of the microphones. I mean, it was just like not a recording environment. And then, you know, there's the moments we had room microphones all over the jail to to kind of capture the natural reverb. Because that was one of the powerful sentiments that I wanted to like really drive home was like these performances are echoing off of this flooded building, this, these walls that were just under 27 feet of water, you know. And so I wanted room mics in certain areas and Luke and Bridger, you know, got it dialed perfectly and they had the setup.
Speaker 2:It sounded so good and you know we'd be about ready to roll and then all of a sudden you'd hear a generator just kick on from the building next door or like literally a convoy of military vehicles would roll through town with like a hundred military people following it, marching with shovels recording environment, you can imagine. But all of those noises baked into these tracks create such a powerful sense of place and time as well, like it's. So we didn't necessarily want to fight it consistently, because one you don't want to be those people that's like, hey, stop digging out your town while we record this album. Instead, we adopt the mentality that was hey, we're going to be doing this alongside of the town being dug out, because this is an emotional form of digging ourselves out, and so keeping a lot of those sounds on the record, like sonically it's not going to sound like a perfectly clean, crispy studio, but emotionally it's going to resonate a lot heavier, I think For those of us that were here, I mean those emotionally it's going to resonate a lot heavier, I think.
Speaker 3:For those of us that were here, I mean, those sounds of like helicopters going overhead were like such a frequent, like just reality, like, depending on where you lived too, like on the hour or even more often than that.
Speaker 2:Totally. Yeah, it's all baked into these tracks. I think it's going to be kind of crazy, like it goes from idea to recording it, and filming it all to the vinyl record is going to be such an interesting thing from this because in the grooves of the vinyl record that people will be able to physically hold in their hand are going to be etched these sounds of the town of Marshall being cleaned out, way off in the background, with this music performance layered on top of it, and so you'll literally be able to hold into your hand kind of a time capsule of when Marshall as a town was, you know, literally physically digging itself out from this flood. And so it's. It just kind of all happened so fast and without thought, you know, like before the storm, putting together a session with a musician and going to a studio or even in our studio space when we had it. You know we did tons of sessions in there and it takes, you know, weeks of emailing and trying to figure out, you know, the band setup and the microphones and the different arrangements and how we want to film it, and planning and storyboarding and figuring. You know it's like one little live performance video before the storm took, you know, weeks, if not months, to plan and prepare and get ready and schedule dates and everyone's got to be on time and this kind of thing.
Speaker 2:And this was the most performances I think I've ever recorded in one thing, done so quickly, with no thought, with no second guessing, with no huge production. It was like show up at this time at the jail with a performance. Clay messaged all the musicians saying bring a performance that really resonates with you for this time, which is one of the reasons that the final product project was called the resonance sessions, because that was kind of the directive and it, you know, there was no shortage of, yeah, like just emotion resonating in that space too. It was just so powerful but so free. And so, you know, like some of the best performances I think I've ever witnessed in my whole life, and I don't know if that's because I'm just so tied to the story and I was also part of this area living through the storm, but something about them just hits. It hits harder and I did kind of a soft, you know, presentation.
Speaker 2:Thanksgiving was the first time I'd left the area since the storm and I went to my partner's family and I kind of put up on the big, you know screen, like some of these performances, and I just wanted to be like, hey, this is what we've been up to since, you know, the storm happened.
Speaker 2:This is a powerful project that I've been working on and none of them live in Asheville or even in the South, they're all scattered around the country. But we had all gathered for Thanksgiving and that's when it kind of confirmed for me that like, oh, you don't have to live through the storm to understand the emotional gravitas of these performances, like it hits everyone. So that's when I kind of realized, like this is deeply, deeply human. So that's when I kind of realized, like this is deeply, deeply human. You know, it's deeply embedded in all of us that you can witness this stuff. That's why I think filming it was so important. Like in witnessing it you can tell, like you don't have to have lived through it, you don't have to have ever lived through a natural disaster, but you can tell it's just really poignant through a natural disaster, but you can tell it's just really poignant.
Speaker 3:So, going back to just that initial, you know those four days at that time did you all know that this was going to be an album that Citizen Vinyl would press, or did that come about later?
Speaker 2:No, I mean we had ideas. We were kind of it was fun. Honestly, like you know, luke, bridger, clay and myself were kind of the four, the team of four. There were a couple days that Bridger couldn't go to record, so it was Luke, clay and myself as, like this crew and you know, we just were like we'd like inviting musician in they do their performance. We'd got a recording of them which, by the way, mostly first takes I think 98% of them were one take, that's it, you're done. They felt good about it, I felt good about it. Everyone was like holy moly. That was the most powerful thing I've ever witnessed. I was like we couldn't do a second take if we tried, you know. So that was a crazy thing. That never happens in recording sessions. But you know, we'd be done and like the musician would leave and maybe there'd be like 15, 30 minutes before the next musician was coming in and we were just kind of riffing like, oh man, wouldn't it be cool if these sessions, you know, all came out this way? Or what if we did? What if we pressed it to vinyl, you know, and we're just kind of riffing ideas.
Speaker 2:But after the fact, you know, once I got home and I had all the audio recordings. Well, bridger had all the audio recordings. I had all of the video recordings on my hard drives that have just been. You know. I have, like you know, six terabytes of storm footage and interviews now with different people in Barnardsville and Marshall and Swannanoa and I did a whole piece on Beloved and so I have all this like actual journalism pieces on these random hard drives and I was just like, well, here's 35 more performances to add to these hard drives. It's so unorganized and chaotic but I just had to store it and back it up and I was like this is so important. I just all of a sudden looked at the hard drive like I can't even believe what's on this hard drive now, like it's just crazy. But once we got it all sorted it all, I started watching through some of the performances before I even had the audio tracks connected to them, just from the audio, from my camera, and I was just weeping in my chair Like, especially the number.
Speaker 2:Like, for me, the number one performance I know in my heart was a guy named Doug Carr whose music name is Soft Talk, and he is just the most extraordinary character. I had never met him before he walked into the jail, very soft spoken, like super nice, like immediately I could just tell, tell, like just such a soft, sensitive soul, like just a great human being. We were talking to him, bridger was talking to him, like we were really bonding and it was like, okay, like you know time for this performance. And we were like what are you going to perform? And and he said, yeah, I wrote this song after I learned that my friend was swept down the mountain in his house in a landslide in Batcave and I was like holy moly, like that is intense. The friend survived, thankfully, but you know, was injured badly and really this shook Doug up and he wrote this piece called Mother Fountain.
Speaker 4:And on the morning, when you claimed our brother's house and every secret in those walls, they became yours.
Speaker 2:It was yeah, I can't even talk about it really, I'll just get so emotional. It was just. It's the music that's um being played in the trailer for the project that I edited together. You know he had three backup uh vocalists performing kind of like playing out drones of noise over of, you know, over his guitar and his vocal and his voice is so low and quiet and soft that we had to mic so closely and and it was just like, yeah, kind of one of the most touching performance. It is the most touching performance I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 3:Are there maybe a couple others that you'd want to share something about that, that are really sticking with you?
Speaker 2:Totally yeah. That one for me, was like maybe the heaviest, most emotional. Another cool aspect to the project was so a huge part of Madison County obviously is the traditional music, and a huge part within the traditional music is the ballad singing in Madison County, particularly in Western North Carolina in general, and so we wanted to include the ballad singers in this album. And Clay reached out to Donna Rae Norton, who kind of then reached out to her community of ballad performers, and they came down to the jail jail and I think they were all on the same afternoon. It was kind of like the afternoon of ballad performers recording their songs.
Speaker 2:And two things from that really stick out. One was William, this ballad singer. He came and he performed a ballad of the flood of 1916, which was a ballad written after the last, you know, crazy flood that hit Western North Carolina, the last really super devastating one of similar size to this one, and I was, like you know, I had never heard it before. He sat down and performed it and the words of this ballad, the lyric of this ballad, are just so poignant and applicable to the experiences that happened during this flood of Hurricane Helene In the month of July in the year 16,.
Speaker 4:In the month of July in the year 16, the most terrible storm that ever was seen made its way from the ocean wide and it struck with force on the mountainside.
Speaker 2:It was like being transported back in time and it was as if, like the ancestors who wrote those songs were performing them for us now, as somewhat of like a lesson slash, like a we hear you and we know what you went through, kind of thing. I mean, it's just one of the most haunting, yeah, also powerful performances. But just the lyrics themselves just are so, so applicable to the experiences we all went through for Helene. So I'm excited for the public to hear that and just like, yeah, I, it's a ballad, which is not for everyone, you know, some people don't even know what ballads are, but I suggest closing your eyes and just drifting off into the story and letting the words of it paint a picture in your mind of these experiences that happened back in 1916 and how similar they are to today. So that was a so on each of the sides it's a triple vinyl album there's going to be a ballad. So on each of the sides it's a triple vinyl album there's going to be a ballad performance on each of the sides of the album Nice Um, which is really cool.
Speaker 2:The other crazy thing that happened is that the now governor of North Carolina, josh Stein, before he was elected, was on one of these recording days was walking through Marshall to kind of see for himself the damage that was done and hear from the people there about how they're rebuilding, what are their needs, that kind of thing. And he had with him kind of this entourage of you know political men in nicely dressed suits and pants and you know they're kind of walking through the town of Marshall and the jail's, kind of near one of the ends, and and right when they walked past the jail we were kind of just breaking in between two musicians performing and we had all we all just kind of simultaneously walked out of the jail. You know, josh Clay, me, bridger, like everyone was kind of standing out there, donna Ray was down there, um, and we look over and this entourage of people is walking down the street and they come over and Josh Kopis, who owns the jail, who's just a super friendly, inviting character, animated soul, just runs over and he's like Josh Stein, like so good to see you man, like welcome to Marshall. You know he's just like you know. And Josh is just like oh, like, wow, like nice to meet you and and. And you know, oh, like, wow, like nice to meet you and and and you know he's like you need to come into the jail and witness one of these performances.
Speaker 2:And we're in and Donna Ray is going to sing a ballad and I'm telling you this is what Appalachia is like. You know, this is a. This is going to be a great example. If you want to know what's really happening down here, come in here and witness one of these performances. And here and witness one of these performances. And so he kind of hesitates and the whole, like entourage, is kind of looking around, and then eventually they're like okay, we'll do that.
Speaker 3:You're telling like a future governor hey, we want to put you in this jail real quick.
Speaker 2:Literally in this dank building that had been flooded. You know that is like all these like kind of artsy people just ran out of as you were walking by. You know what are they doing in this building? So we go inside and I was like, are we gonna do a live take for these or are we just gonna do a performance? And I was like, nope, we're doing it live, like this is gonna be the track that makes it on the record. So the you know now governor is standing there, his whole team and donna ray norton. I don't know if you've ever heard her perform a ballad, but she has like the just most wild, robust, beautiful voice. It's just like so booming and like it is loud in there when her ballad is bouncing off the walls.
Speaker 4:Fine Sally took sick and she know it not why Her chambers all felt that she sure lie, would die.
Speaker 1:They called for the doctor.
Speaker 2:For the one of a cure, and the whole room is pure silent. I'm like, okay, everyone, we're doing a live recording. Like save your clapping until I raise my arm up at the end and all the stuff. I'm kind of coaching everyone in there and bust through this ballad. It's the most beautiful performance. Everyone's silent and I'm backing away with the camera, you know, just like capturing those last moments.
Speaker 2:And then I look around and I just like bring my hand up and the whole room just erupts in applause and like everyone is so excited and I was just like, wow, like this person is gonna walk away with that buried deep inside their heart of this performance of this place. Like so cool that I got elected, you know, and now is like gonna be in that leadership position having seen and witnessed this performance. So there's just so many crazy little stories like that that happened throughout this. I think there's something fully real about like synchronicity and just like when you're meant to be where you're meant to be, really powerful, things happen. And I feel like consistently throughout this recording process and the creation of this album, that is how it has been. That's been my experience in this whole project.
Speaker 3:So and obviously the proceeds of this are going to the Madison Arts Council and Rare Birds Cultural Arts. Tell me a little bit more about them and why they're so important.
Speaker 2:The record being recorded in Marshall was very much influenced by the artists of Madison County. A lot of the people who chipped in, who gave their time to collaborate on this, are very central to Madison County. You know there were musicians all over Western North Carolina that came for this performance. But you know, when you're down there and you're looking at Marshall, you're like, ok, yeah, like this place was really seriously hit, like cultural landmarks, music landmarks, music venues, musicians who lived in town, music landmarks, music venues, musicians who lived in town. I mean, every place is, you know, full of destruction and these kind of stories.
Speaker 2:And it's just so happened that Marshall is kind of where my energy was put. But like in witnessing it, I was like this is, you know, some wild stuff and and I just know how fragile like the heritage is in that area, like most of it is an oral tradition, like ballads and traditional music and things like that, but a lot of it, you know, if it lives in a person and that person you know passes on, then it's like that is a huge, you know heartbreak to the tradition and the town and like seeing a natural disaster where it could have happened to anyone or any building or any archive or anything like that. It's just like whoa, we need to really back up and protect this stuff, like just in case you know. And so in doing that, I knew that the Madison County Arts Council was like a venerable kind of like long term has been there. A supported artist and artistry in Madison County for Council was like a venerable kind of like long term has been there as supported artist and artistry in Madison County for a long time.
Speaker 2:And my really good friend who is the director for it, brandon Johnson you know he was in conversation with us. He came down and watched the recordings one of the days and I just knew that like some of the proceeds needed to go to them and I was talking to Clay and Josh and we were kind of riffing back and forth about how to share this. What do we feel the impact you know would be, you know used for. And it kind of turned into this thing where it was like, okay, art is what is creating this project, art is what is expressing itself through this project and through the storm and that is going to be needed for so long after this recording session. Like that was early on in the storm when it was fast paced and adrenaline.
Speaker 2:We're all in this like kind of hero phase where you know it's just everyone's helping and it's beautiful and everyone has witnessed it. Even now you know we're months after the storm and the volunteers have dropped off and the incoming help has dropped off, and so we were like, okay, art is something that has helped us and if we can sustain it longer, then it will help us longer. And so putting it into the Madison County Arts Council, putting it into Rare Bird Cultural Arts, is a way that that money will then be dispersed to venues around Madison County, musicians around Madison County, as a way to preserve the art there, to continue to build up the community. Music has been played at all the community gatherings, with musicians coming in and finding a way to sustain them in their careers and everything like that just felt like it would be kind of a tool for long-term sustainable help in the region.
Speaker 3:What does you know when you look at like the music scene in Western North Carolina right now, coming up on four months after the storm? What does it look like right now?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's totally different for everyone. I think the you know my kind of like side of the community that I spend the most time with, like I was saying, is kind of the old time traditional music scene, saying is kind of the old time traditional music scene and our community, even during the early days of the storm, got together and played music together. It was like it's one of the forms of healing that our community does. It's one of the like forms of expression that feels powerful and just like sharing space with musicians. So like the gatherings are, have you know just felt warmer and like, yeah, so much more special when at one point they could be threatened. You know, or someone's house that we normally gather in, or a business that you know, like, for instance, zuma Coffee you know that was like one of the places of the longest running bluegrass jams in Madison County, and for it to not be there, that's a point of pause for that jam. You know and like so musicians getting together to fill that space, you know it's almost like it has to happen and so that's been powerful to just, yeah, share space. You know it's just, it's just for fun, it's just to get together, it's just for love and community and and so continuing. That has been powerful.
Speaker 2:On the other side of it, it's like I've witnessed musicians you know come together in extremely powerful ways, like through benefit albums, similar to the resonance sessions or compilation albums, like Cardinals at the Window window, you know that have raised thousands and thousands of dollars to help community members and have donated. And you know you're witnessing, you know ways that you can put your skills like I was saying earlier, like the niche skills of artists to work and and just like figuring out avenues of, yeah, funneling everything from like instruments. Like one of my friends, nicholas Edward Williams, used to live in the area. I think he lived in Swannanoa but he now lives in Tennessee, but when he saw it he put together the Restring Appalachia program and got tons of instruments donated so that he could give them to people who had lost their instruments in the storm. You know, like it's just like it doesn't have to be a performance or like a show to put your art to work in a way, and musicians are getting so creative and artists are getting so creative in finding ways that can assist to the community. That's specific to expression and human expression and we're all seeing the benefits of it. Like you know, we're all, yeah, feeling it.
Speaker 2:I think I think one of the tough parts is, like, the creative economy of this area is definitely, you know, hit is devastated, and so, like these musicians that have come up with programs and in albums and shows for benefits, that's great and giving away the proceeds to the flood is is incredible, like it's so purely born out of love, and it's really difficult because then that person is not making money, you know, and they're spending so much time getting it together I mean the resonance sessions included, like the behind the scenes of that, since recording it all has been a full time job, you know, and it's a labor of love, but it's also putting a strain on creatives ability to live, sustain themselves, you know, work within their normal bounds of working, within their normal bounds of working, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's trying to figure out ways to sustain that for the long term. It's keeping music alive. It's the local people going to music shows and supporting artists and buying their merch and just all these ways that the music community can be supported will only help the music community support even more can be supported will only help the music community support even more.
Speaker 3:What do you really hope when people sit down to listen to this, whether it's they get the digital tracks on Bandcamp, or they sit down and they drop the needle on the vinyl? What do you hope they're going to take away from listening?
Speaker 2:I think that vinyl is something really interesting, like I was saying, because it's kind of this physical thing that you get from you know this recording process, like I think that's going to be a super powerful transmission right there from person to person, like from us to whoever buys this.
Speaker 2:The physical record, the physical record. I think that opening it up, you're going to be hit with tons of imagery. You know in the covers and you know in the liner notes is stories and lyrics and things, and it's going to be beautiful. So I think right there, like holding something physically in your hand, is going to already be like the first kind of like experience you get from the resonance sessions, I think, when you start listening to the performances. I think it's going to be a really interesting experience for people because it is not a really deeply fixed up, tweaked studio record with lots of you know know, crystal clear, auto-toned, tuned voices. You know it like doesn't have the bells and whistles. So I think for a lot of people's ear it's going to be a shock at first and I think that that is going to create kind of that really powerful feeling that I was talking about earlier, which is going to be, you know, at first a shock, you're going to hear the hum of the room and generators in the distance and the chair creaking on the cement floor like we didn't we had metal chair on the cement floor like not a recording studio, you know. And so I think, like at first it's going to like kind of shock people maybe and I'm just kind of putting myself in my at first it's gonna like kind of shock people maybe and I'm just kind of putting myself in my head like what it would be like for me if I didn't know and and I think like that kind of mimics a little bit of the shock feeling and it kind of. Then I think people will kind of sink into it. And my hope is that like people kind of really take their time to listen to this in a setting that is like you know, you know like calm and peaceful and kind of like soak in these words, because each of the lyrics are handcrafted for this experience and so you know, putting it on in the background. I would also love if people did that, but I think if people had an intentionality before listening to it, it would be to sit and really soak it in and and I think there's going to be a transmission of wisdom. I think it's going to be like hey, you know, there's a chance that we live in a world now where this is going to be happening more and more frequently, with climate change, with just like everything shifting and changing and different storms happening and snow storms, and water storms and fire storms and, like you know, like we're seeing in LA right now like this is something that might happen more and more. And so, buried deep within this record is like, hey, this is what we went through, this is what it was like for us, this is the. These are emotions that we've experienced and that we are expressing outward and we're very vulnerable about that, all these people that were involved in this process. And so I think there's going to be like a transmission of like emotion into the person, like okay, like humans can survive and sustain and like come together in beautiful ways, like actually, one of the huge things for me was early on in this, when I was dreaming up the like vinyl side of it.
Speaker 2:Once we heard that Citizen Vinyl would press it and we try to fund it and like do all these different things? I was like wow, like has this been done before and my first thought was like Hurricane Katrina, and I looked up you know music that came out of Hurricane Katrina. I found a benefit album called gave New Orleans musicians free time to go and record a song, and then they put it together in this record and so I got that experience from listening. I ordered the record, got it sent to my house and have been playing it and pouring through it and I got that experience. I was like, oh, people have been through this and this is what comes out on the other side. And so I was super touched by learning and listening from that record and hopefully kind of my intentionality in creating the resonance sessions will then be, you know, played forward to whoever listens to it in the future.
Speaker 3:I can't wait to listen and you know, like hearing you talk about. Like you know, I get a record and oftentimes that is what I do. I put it on. It's in the background, like I'm getting dinner ready or something, but I'm imagining a totally different. I think this is going to be an event like when I get it. So I want to ask you one more question. It's just a question I've been asking everybody I talk to, which is what's giving you hope right now for Western North Carolina as a whole?
Speaker 2:I think that a lot of my existence in this area is within the creative economy the artists and the musicians and things like that and I have never witnessed a community come together so strongly like that community in Western North Carolina, I think. I recently listened to Robin Wall Kimmerer's new book, serviceberry. It's a great book that talks a lot about the gift economy and it kind of opened my eyes to a lot of things which, you know, is kind of like in an essence, kind of like community members sharing their surplus with each other, or whether that's physical things or emotional things, and like that feeling of when your cup is flowing over, how can you, you know, manage the spill to have it pour into someone else's a little bit? And I like that sentiment and I feel like I grew up in a family that places a high value on that, and so I've been aware of it and I don't think I've ever witnessed it as strongly as I have.
Speaker 2:Post-storm, which was not just the creative community but communities in general here in town and everyone kind of like, we all got to witness a pause from reality and an unfortunate pause, you know, an intense pause, but a pause nonetheless that opened up our eyes to ways that we can be in community and ways that we can not wait for people to come and help us, but a way to demonstrate how we can help ourselves and we actually have all the skills. I did an interview with one of the directors of Beloved Asheville and he was saying, like we are the people, there's no one to be waiting for. When you are the people, like, you have everything you need to solve problems, to change, affect, change. You have it all deep inside yourself and within a community, and this natural disaster brought that out to the surface, which it doesn't often breach the surface, but it did. And yeah, I think that was super powerful and I think that you know, even if you don't in your head write down. Okay, I learned a lesson on how community could be, even if you're not like categorizing that in your brain, it happened to you and so you saw it happen.
Speaker 2:And when you see something happen, you're going to then live your life having had that lived experience, and so you saw it happen. And when you see something happen, you're going to then live your life having had that lived experience, and so maybe little bits of that you know, witnessing community come together, witnessing people, helping people who don't know each other. Just witnessing it will have you bring a little bit of that to the next experience of hardship in your life, and I think that that gives me a lot of hope. That you know this is a huge level. Everyone saw this. Everyone here witnessed this. Everyone that lived through it lived through it, and so that means everyone will carry a little bit of that with them into the next thing.
Speaker 2:Whatever it is we're dealing with, whether it's political climate, you know, anything that happens, I think you know at least the town of Asheville is like that much stronger and that much more prepared. Western North Carolina in general, all surrounding areas, everywhere that's being hit like we're going to carry a little bit of that flame with us, you know, and so I think that's my glimmer of hope.
Speaker 3:That's all for today. Thanks again to Aaron Stone for joining me and for sharing a few songs from the album with us. Once again. You can find links to order the resonance sessions at bandcampcom, on theblueridgepodcom and in our show notes. Aaron mentioned that he's also thinking about making a documentary inspired by the resonance sessions. To stay updated on his work, check out parkway studioscom and Aaron stone photocom, and you can follow him on Instagram at Aaron stone photo and the studio at parkway dot studios. At Aaron Stone Photo and the studio at Parkway Dot Studios. You can also find On the Blue Ridge on Instagram at On the Blue Ridge. Our theme music is the song Goa, written by Lindsay Pruitt and performed by the John Stickley Trio. Thanks for listening and we'll catch you next time on the Blue Ridge.