MOUNTAIN MUSIC TRAILS
Explore music trails that celebrate mountain roots and rhythms.The Crooked Road
The Crooked Road is a 330-mile driving trail through the mountains of Southwest Virginia that connects nine major venues, including the Blue Ridge Music Center, and more than 60 affiliated venues and festivals that visitors can enjoy every day of the year. Although the trail is focused on the uniqueness and vitality of this region’s heritage music, it also includes outdoor recreational activities, museums, crafts, and historic and cultural programs.
The nine major venues of The Crooked Road:
- Birthplace of Country Music Museum – Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia
- Blue Ridge Institute & Museum at Ferrum College – Ferrum, Virginia
- Blue Ridge Music Center
- Carter Family Fold – Hiltons, Virginia
- Country Cabin II – Norton, Virginia
- Floyd Country Store – Floyd, Virginia
- Heartwood – Abingdon, Virginia
- Rex Theater & Galax Fiddlers Convention – Galax, Virginia
- Ralph Stanley Museum – Clintwood, Virginia
Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina
The Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina project highlights the musical heritage of the mountains and foothills of Western North Carolina. The trail region includes 29 North Carolina counties—25 of which were designated the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area by Congress and President of the United States in 2003 in recognition of their unique character, culture, natural beauty, and significance to the history of the nation.
BRMT sites feature traditional North Carolina mountain music and dance. This encompasses many kinds of music traditions, including bluegrass, old-time, blues, early country, gospel, ballad singing, and shaped-note singing, Cherokee music and dance, and such heritage dance styles as clogging and square dancing.
Visitors can explore the trail using the book, Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina: A Guide to Music Sites, Artists, and Traditions of the Mountains and Foothills, or the informative website.
Blue Ridge Music Trails
Blue Ridge Music Trails – Virginia is an online resource that guides travelers to the many public venues where local folk music and dance thrive today along the Commonwealth’s Blue Ridge Parkway corridor. The website details events along the Blue Ridge from the north-central Virginia to the western tip of North Carolina. It is maintained by Ferrum College’s Blue Ridge Institute & Museum.
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2024 Hours of Operation:
Open daily through November 10
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Midday Mountain Music noon-3 p.m.
10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Midday Mountain Music noon-3 p.m.