We honestly don’t go there enough. I’m guessing that out of a couple hundred stories we’ve done for Carolina Traveler, we’ve maybe done a dozen in the Blue Ridge. I tend to head for the coast. Sort of a beach bum at heart.

This week we’re going to be traveling from the eastern slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park all the way up to Grandfather Mountain. We’re shooting three stories for an upcoming show.

We’ll head back up to the mountains in early July and again in early August for a several more stories.

I was joking earlier but the truth is I would actually like to find a moonshiner. And not for liquid refreshment. I want to do a story on someone still moonshining. Ooh, an unintentional play on words… “still moonshining”… “still.” Whatever.

Anyway, they’re still up there, you know? I’ve heard the stories for years and years now. Bathtubs full of booze. Stills straight out of prohibition. Oh they’re out there. I just haven’t found one willing to let us put him on TV. That’s the pickle right there. The “rub” as they say.

How do you get a guy making moonshine to welcome a TV crew into his life for a day? A box full of cash? Oreos maybe? Not sure. But I’ll figure it out eventually.

Anywho, we’ll be in Bryson City Wednesday and then on the Great Smoky Mountain Railway crossing the Nantahala Gorge Thursday and then up the Blue Ridge Parkway Friday with one last stop at Grandfather Mountain.

OH! Before I head out… I hope you caught my favorite bluegrass grunge depression era acoustic rock band on Conan O’Brien a week or so ago, The Avett Brothers! (Pronounced AY-vet, by the way.) They’re from Concord, NC. I did a story on them, seems like four years ago… maybe three, not positive. Then two years ago we featured them LIVE on the air in one of our Road Trips.

These guys are amazing! I caught them on Conan and immediately went to iTunes and downloaded their new music. If you put electric guitars in their hands they’d be something along the lines of a modern day “Led Zeppelin.” But on banjo, base fiddle and acoustic guitar they sound like nothing you’ve ever heard before.

Great songwriters, great storytellers, the Avett’s are pioneering a new genre of music… or merging several other genres into something so fresh Conan couldn’t get enough of them.

It’s seriously good music. But don’t expect to hear it on the radio because it submits to no radio station’s format.

Okay, gotta run. I’m heading for the hills.

See you on TV Saturday night at 7:30.

Peace,
Mike