Lee Abrams was the Yoda of XM Radio. He planned the platform's diversity, understanding that there was no 'one size fits all' to the music; and that each channel needed to be authentic and the authority for the genre it represented. Then, after hiring the staff, he let the garden grow, so that there wasn't a corporate sameness to all the channels. When Lee announced he was leaving to return to the city he grew up in, Chicago, to join the Tribune Company as Chief Innovation Officer, we (the programming department) all cried as we wished him well. During his reign at XM, Lee, who started flying at age 17, used to round us up for Saturday flights to eat lunch somewhere, flying back to homebase afterwards. What was a weekend lark is now a TV show called Sky Dives on WGN. One Saturday, Lee took me for a Reuben sandwich in Morgantown, West Virginia. At least, that's where I think we went. I remember crossing the mountains west of DC. We flew VFR (visual flight rules), and we were low enough that you could see the towns and the hills and valleys as we flew over them. It was a daydream inducing thing, as one wonders what life is like in the hamlets. Flying over football fields, swimming pools, churches, forests; it is easy to romanticize. I am certain, however that life is tougher in those hills than it has been in a while. And they have known poverty all too well in the past, too. I read this amazing book a while ago, about the contributions made by people from Appalachia to the zeitgeist of America...The United States of Appalachia, How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment To America. I highly recommend it.
Photo Credit: Elizebeth LarsonDoug and Telisha Williams come from one of the towns I might have flown over with Lee, Martinsville, Virginia, where boarded up factories are an unfortunate fact of life, giving silent testament to the ebb and flow of bounty. The unemployment rate there is 20.2%. Ouch. Doug and Telisha chose to record their latest CD Ghost of the Knoxville Girl in their hometown. The songs weren’t written by people like me, flying over and trying to imagine what it’s like down there, instead they came from tales told by intimate friends and relatives. Keep it local, keep it close. There is no doubt that they draw from all they heard growing up in that rich landscape. They transport it well into today.
Doug and Telisha hit Arkansas to play the Fayetteville Roots Festival tomorrow. The rest of their dates can be found in the tour section of their website. Meanwhile, here we have a simple time weary tune of betrayal for you. Turning off the "Kitchen Light," from the Music Fog bus at Folk Alliance 2010 in Memphis.
- Jessie Scott
[From 2000 to 2008, Jessie Scott served as Program Director of X Country, a radio channel dedicated to Americana music, which was heard across North America on XM Satellite Radio.]