Crooked Road Ramblers keep family music history alive at Carter Fold

HILTONS, Va. — You could say playing at the Carter Family Fold is a family tradition for Kilby Spencer, the fiddler and founder of the Crooked Road Ramblers.Spencer's mother and father started playing at the Carter Fold starting in the '70s with the Whitetop Mountain Band. Today, his mother still plays with the group, and they still perform at the Fold. Now, Kilby Spencer and the rest of his Ramblers are keeping tradition alive with a healthy list of shows, including ones at the Carter Family Fold."For many people in the band, it's something their parents or grandparents did," Spencer said. "You feel like you're keeping part of your family alive."The band is made up of members from along the Crooked Road — Virginia's Heritage Music Trail. The Crooked Road winds through almost 300 miles through Southwest Virginia. It was in its early planning stages about 20 years ago when the group opted to honor the musical trail, with the blessing of Joe Wilson, the chairman of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, who helped develop the Crooked Road."We got his blessing to use the band name of the Crooked Road Ramblers," Spencer said. "He was a great friend to traditional music. That's where the name came from. We were all from along the Crooked Road, and the Crooked Road initiative was getting started at about that time."Spencer plays fiddle for the Crooked Road Ramblers. Kelley Breiding plays banjo and offers vocals. She also leads the rockabilly band Kelley and the Cowboys. Meanwhile, John Perry, an old-time guitar player and vocalist, continues his over 50-year love for old-time music with the band. The group also includes Wayne Dye, the band's mandolin player, who also offers vocals. Dye is also a retired coal miner from Russell County whose father was part of the Russell County Boys band.The Crooked Road Ramblers also include two new members of the group, Jesse Morris, who comes from a musical family in Southwest Virginia and plays the bass, and Ali Kafka, who plays guitar after starting as a street musician from Elizabethton.For Spencer, it all started in Whitetop, Virginia, among family musicians and troves of local instrumentalists with a love for old-time music."There was the Whitetop Folk Festival in the 1930s, where musicians would travel from all over to compete and perform at," Spencer said. "It's been a hotbed for musicians up that way ever since then. There's all sorts of banjo players, guitar players, fiddle players there now still."However, his mountain music roots really took hold when old-time music was implemented as part of the school system's daily curriculum in Grayson County Schools. That, paired with his family's love for old-time music, was the recipe that set him on the path toward the Crooked Road Ramblers."I was never super into it, but then old-time music became part of the daily curriculum where I went to school," Spencer recalled. "I had a two-hour block of mountain music every day (from) about the time I was a teenager. That sort of helped sparked my interest. I got interested in the history of it. I started doing research on family, older musicians in the area, and it sort of just grew from there to the point where I decided it was going to be my No. 1 hobby. I've been doing it ever since then."His interest has also led him to the Carter Family Fold, which is where his mother, Emily, and father, Thornton, began playing old-time country music with the Whitetop Mountain Band in the Fold's infancy. The band started in the 1940s, went dormant and reformed in the '70s. The group is still a returning band to the Carter Fold stage."They actually used to play at the Carter Family Fold when the Fold was in the old store," Spencer said. "That was before they moved to the other building. Rita (Forrester, the Fold's executive director) always tells this story about how they are one of the only original bands that are still going from when the Fold started. And my band started playing there quite a few years ago. We really enjoy it a lot. And it's nice to have that connection going back all those years."The Crooked Road Ramblers will return to the Carter Fold at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, in Hiltons, Virginia. The band aims to offer dance tunes with slower songs feathered in between, Spencer said. But mostly, the band will offer their old-time sound in a place filled with all sorts of music and family history."There's so much history there," Spencer said. "It's the central venue of old-time music in Southwest Virginia. You feel that history when you play there. You can feel the history in the building. It has its own feel. It's just a special place."Carter Family Fold shows are held on Saturday nights. Doors open at 6 p.m., and music begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is $11 for adults (online, $10 at door), $3 for children 6 to 11, and children 6 and under get in free. For more information or to purchase tickets online, go to www.carterfamilyfold.org/.What: The Crooked Road RamblersWhen: Saturday, May 6, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.)Where: Carter Family Fold, 3449 A.P. Carter Highway, Hiltons, Virginia 24258Admission: $10 for adults, $2 for children 6 to 11, and children 6 and under get in free. Tickets are available online (for an increased price by $1) and at the door.More info: www.carterfamilyfold.orgBand info: www.crookedroadramblers.com