West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

's folk heritage is a part of the

Appalachian folk music Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles (particularly Scotland), ...

tradition, and includes styles of

fiddling A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially syno ...

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

singing, and other styles that draw on

Ulster-Scots Ulster Scots, may refer to: * Ulster Scots people * Ulster Scots dialect {{disambig Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

music. West Virginia consists of a mostly rural region, although its few relatively urban centers are prominent spots of musical innovation. The

Capitol Music Hall The Capitol Theatre (formerly the Capitol Music Hall) is the largest theatre in West Virginia and a landmark building in the national historic district of downtown Wheeling. For many years, it has served as the home of Jamboree USA and the Wheeli ...

, in Wheeling, is the oldest performing place of its kind in the state, and has hosted a wide variety of acts, from national tours to the local

Wheeling Symphony Orchestra The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra is a regional orchestra based in Wheeling, West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of th ...

. Other music institutions in West Virginia include the Mountaineer Opera House in Milton. The

West Virginia Symphony Orchestra The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra is a professional orchestra that performs primarily at the Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia. The orchestra performs over 50 concerts annually around the state of West Virginia, and has a nationally ...

was founded in 1939, as the ''Charleston Civic Orchestra'', before becoming the ''Charleston Symphony Orchestra'' in 1943. The first conductor was William R. Wiant, followed by the prominent conductor Antonio Modarelli, of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. The town of Glenville has long been home to the annual West Virginia State Folk Festival.

Music history

West Virginia's historical contributions to musical development include ''

WWVA Jamboree The ''Wheeling Jamboree'' is the second-oldest country music radio broadcast in the United States after the ''Grand Ole Opry''. The Jamboree originated in 1933 in Wheeling, West Virginia on WWVA, the first radio station in West Virginia and a 5 ...

'', a radio show that began in 1933 and soon became a very prominent regional show, based out of the Capitol Music Hall in Wheeling. WWVA, the radio station that has long broadcast ''WWVA Jamboree'', hosts the

Jamboree in the Hills Jamboree in the Hills was an annual festival of country music in Morristown, Ohio (about hours west of Pittsburgh, and 20 minutes west of Wheeling, West Virginia) in Belmont County, Ohio, until Live Nation officially canceled it on November 7, ...

every July in St. Clairsville,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, just across the border from Wheeling. The town of Oak Hill was the site of country legend

Hank Williams Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century. W ...

' death, which is commemorated by a plaque in front of the public library in Oak Hill.

Daniel Johnston Daniel Dale Johnston (January 22, 1961 – September 11, 2019) was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in Outsider music, outsider, Lo-fi music, lo-fi, and alternative rock, alternative music scenes. Most ...

, born in California, grew up in New Cumberland.

Music festivals

Notable musicians

Hasil Adkins Hasil Adkins (April 29, 1937 – April 26, 2005) was an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His genres include rock and roll, country, blues and more commonly rockabilly, and because of his unusual playing and singing style, ...

rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...

musician * Elbern Alkire, Hawaiian guitar * Cuba Austin, jazz drummer * Leon "Chu" Berry,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

Charles Blevins Charles Blevins was a West Virginia folk music artist and the owner of Red Robin Inn, in Borderland, West Virginia. Career Blevins began his career in coal mining for 16 years, following in the footsteps of generations before him who had work ...

, West Virginia folk music musician * Andy Boarman, banjo and autoharp player *

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

, melodic

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

band *

Mark Carman Mark Lewyn Carman (born September 3, 1960) is an American music producer, singer, songwriter, and social activist. Career Music Carman is known primarily for his role as the musical arranger and co-producer of the Grammy nominated album by coun ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-nominated producer, musician, songwriter *

Tyler Childers Timothy Tyler Childers ( ; born June 21, 1991) is an American country singer and songwriter. His music has been described as a mix of neotraditional country, bluegrass, folk, and honky-tonk. His breakthrough studio album, ''Purgatory'' (2017) ...

, folk/country/Americana singer *

Wilma Lee Cooper Wilma Lee Leary (February 7, 1921 – September 13, 2011), known professionally as Wilma Lee Cooper, was an American country music entertainer. She was a guitarist, banjo player and vocalist, and was given the title of "First Lady of Bluegrass" b ...

and

Stoney Cooper Dale Troy Cooper (October 16, 1918 – March 22, 1977), known professionally as Stoney Cooper, was an American country star and member of the Grand Ole Opry. He played the fiddle and the guitar. Biography Cooper was the son of Kenny and Stella ...

, country *

Billy Cox William Cox (born October 18, 1941) is an American bassist, best known for performing with Jimi Hendrix. Cox is the only surviving musician to have regularly played with Hendrix: first when both were in the Army, then in 1969 with the interim g ...

, bassist for Jimi Hendrix *

George Crumb George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical ...

, composer *

Hazel Dickens Hazel Jane Dickens (June 1, 1925 – April 22, 2011) was an American bluegrass singer, songwriter, double bassist, guitarist and banjo player. Her music was characterized not only by her high, lonesome singing style, but also by her provoca ...

, bluegrass singer from Mercer County *

Little Jimmy Dickens James Cecil Dickens (December 19, 1920 – January 2, 2015), better known by his stage name Little Jimmy Dickens, was an American country music singer and songwriter famous for his humorous novelty songs, his small size (4'10" 50 cm, and hi ...

singer * Ed Haley, old-timey fiddler from Logan County *

Hawkshaw Hawkins Harold Franklin "Hawkshaw" Hawkins (December 22, 1921 – March 5, 1963) was an American country music singer popular from the 1950s into the early 1960s. He was known for his rich, smooth vocals and music drawn from blues, boogie and honky ...

singer *

Blind Joe Hill Blind Joe Hill (January 7, 1931 – November 17, 1999) was an American blues singer, guitarist, harmonica player and drummer. A one-man band, he was adopted and named Joe Thomas Hill after being born in Pennsylvania, United States. He play ...

, blues singer, one-man band *

Frank Hutchison Frank Hutchison (March 20, 1897 – November 9, 1945) was an American early country blues and Piedmont blues musician and songwriter. Okeh Records promotional materials referred to him as “The Pride of West Virginia,” and he is thought to ...

, country blues and Piedmont blues musician and songwriter * Johnnie Johnson,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

player and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

musician * Dick Justice, blues and folk musician *

Musa Kaleem Orlando Wright, better known as Musa Kaleem (January 3, 1921 – March 26, 1988) was an American jazz saxophonist and flautist. Career Wright bought a clarinet in 1937, and by 1939 was touring as a saxophonist with the El Rodgers Mystics of Rh ...

, jazz saxophonist and flautist *

Karma to Burn Karma to Burn (commonly abbreviated as K2B) was an American Rock music, rock band from Morgantown, West Virginia. The band was noted for its heavy, mostly instrumental sound. Their name comes from a sleevenote on Bob Dylan's 1976 album ''Desir ...

, progressive alternative-metal band *

The Lilly Brothers The Lilly Brothers, (Bea Lilly, born Michael Burt Lilly, December 15, 1921 – September 18, 2005 and brother Everett Lilly, born July 1, 1924 – May 8, 2012) were bluegrass musicians born in Clear Creek, West Virginia. They have been credited w ...

, bluegrass musicians * The Love Coats, acoustic rock/pop *

Kathy Mattea Kathleen Alice Mattea (born June 21, 1959) is an American country music and bluegrass singer. Active since 1984 as a recording artist, she has charted more than 30 singles on the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs charts, including four that reac ...

singer * Mind Garage, psychedelic rock *

Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr. Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. (born August 11, 1974) is an American jazz singer from Logan County, West Virginia. He received national attention for winning the sixth season of the NBC reality show ''America's Got Talent''. Landau has released a to ...

singer * John & Emery McClung Brothers & old-time musicians ca. 1930 * Tex McGuire, old-time musician * Tim O'Brien, bluegrass musician *

Mollie O'Brien Mollie O'Brien (born October 25, 1952) is an Americana, bluegrass, R&B, and folk singer from Wheeling, West Virginia. She has released a number of Americana albums with her brother, Grammy-winner Tim O'Brien. She has also released five posi ...

, bluegrass, Americana *

Molly O'Day Molly O'Day (born Suzanne Dobson Noonan; October 16, 1909 – October 22, 1998) was an American film actress and the younger sister of Sally O'Neil. Biography Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, she was the youngest of 11 children of Judge Thoma ...

, pioneering

vocalist *

Brad Paisley Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His first success came in 1997 as the writer of David Kersh's "Another You (David Kersh song), Another You". After this, he signed with ...

singer and songwriter from Wheeling. Has had 5 #2 albums on the Billboard 200 from 2005 to 2014. *

Don Redman Donald Matthew Redman (July 29, 1900 – November 30, 1964) was an American jazz musician, arranger, bandleader, and composer. Biography Redman was born in Piedmont, Mineral County, West Virginia, United States. His father was a music teacher ...

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

and

clarinetist The clarinet is a single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches. The clarinet family is the largest woodw ...

Blind Alfred Reed Blind Alfred Reed (June 15, 1880 – January 17, 1956) was an American folk, country, and old-time musician and singer-songwriter. He was one of the artists who recorded at the Bristol Sessions in 1927, alongside more famous names such as Jimm ...

, fiddler & composer * Carl Rutherford, blues guitarist and singer from

War, West Virginia War is a city in McDowell County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 690 at the 2020 census. War was incorporated in 1920 by the Circuit Court of McDowell County. Its name is derived from War Creek, whose confluence with Dry For ...

* Jim Savarino, singer/songwriter *

Art Simmons Arthur Eugene Simmons (February 5, 1926 – April 23, 2018) was an American jazz pianist. Simmons was born in Glen White, West Virginia, in February 1926. He played in a band while serving in the U.S. military in 1946, then remained in Germany af ...

, jazz pianist *

Michael W. Smith Michael Whitaker Smith (born October 7, 1957) is an American musician who has charted in both contemporary Christian music, contemporary Christian and mainstream charts. His biggest success in mainstream music was in 1991 when "Place in This Worl ...

contemporary Christian music Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christianity, Chri ...

star *

Red Sovine Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 7, 1917 – April 4, 1980) was an American country music singer and songwriter associated with truck-driving country songs, particularly those recited as narratives but set to music. His most noted examples ar ...

, country *

Johnny Staats Johnny Staats is a bluegrass mandolin, guitar and violin player, born and raised in West Virginia. He has been featured on NBC's Today Show, in People Magazine, on the CBS Evening News and CNN, and has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry. He won Charl ...

, bluegrass mandolin *

Eleanor Steber Eleanor Steber (July 17, 1914October 3, 1990) was an American operatic soprano. Steber is noted as one of the first major opera stars to have achieved the highest success with training and a career based in the United States. Life and career E ...

, operatic soprano *

Steve Whiteman Steve Whiteman (born August 28, 1956) is an American rock vocalist, best known for being the lead singer of Kix (band), Kix. Biography Early years Whiteman first realized his love for music at a young age. As a child, he would hurry home fr ...

, lead singer of Kix *

The Williamson Brothers Arnold and Ervin Williamson (better known as The Williamson Brothers) were American folk musicians based in Logan County, West Virginia, United States, who were active in the 1920s and 1930s. Arnold played the fiddle while Ervin played the guitar ...

, folk *

Garland Wilson Garland Lorenzo Wilson (June 13, 1909 – May 31, 1954) was an American jazz pianist who accompanied Nina Mae McKinney. Wilson was a boogie-woogie and stride pianist. Life and career Garland Wilson was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, Unite ...

, jazz pianist *

Melvin Wine Melvin Wine (April 20, 1909 – March 16, 2003) was an American Appalachian fiddler from the state of West Virginia. He was a lifelong resident of Copen, in Braxton County, West Virginia. Early life Wine was born in Burnsville, West Virginia ...

, recipient of a

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...

Bill Withers William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer and songwriter. He is known for having several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including "Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), "Grandma's Hands" (1971), "Use Me ( ...

, R&B musician, had a #1

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

hit with " Lean on Me" in 1972. *

Frankie Yankovic Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He ...

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

musician * Zao, metalcore band

References

* *
West Virginia Music Hall of Fame
*Brandon E. Davis

Notes

{{Reflist West Virginia culture

Appalachian music

Music history

Music festivals

Notable musicians

See also

References

Notes