TRAVEL & CULTURE MID-ATLANTIC EDITION the general store from which the tours depart. (At tourpikecounty.com, click on Things To See & Do and then History & Culture.) PLAYLIST PICK: “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn MARYLAND Billie Holiday Statue BALTIMORE Before Billie Holiday became known as “Lady Day” and a legendary jazz vocalist, she spent her childhood in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore. Though her life was short (she died at age 44) and her formative years not idyllic (her jazz musician father was absent, and her mother struggled to support her), Holiday channeled her often painful life experience Visit the spots where America’s into her work. The soulful and heart-wrenching timbre soundtrack was created she brought to songs like BY HANNAH HAYES | TYPOGRAPHY BY LUKE LUCAS “Summertime” and “Strange Fruit” separated her from other female jazz singers of the time period. A beautiful statue of Holiday, which was KENTUCKY With her seven siblings, up in her lyrics for songs created by African-American including sister and singer such as “You’re Lookin’ at sculptor James Earl Reid, Loretta Lynn’s Crystal Gayle, Lynn grew up Country,” “Blue Kentucky stands as a memorial to in a cabin nestled among Girl,” and “Van Lear Rose,” the legendary singer at the Home Place in the hills of the Van Lear which she cowrote with corner of West Lafayette Butcher Holler mining community, where Jack White in 2004. and Pennsylvania avenues. VAN LEAR her father worked. (The SEE IT: Tours are offered SEE IT: Throughout the Fells tourpikecounty.com singer came by her “Coal daily (weather permitting) Point area, there are murals The tiny town of Butcher Miner’s Daughter” moniker to visitors who are willing to depicting iconic images Holler, Kentucky, had a honestly.) Throughout her venture down the one-lane of Holiday. massive impact on the iconic career, imagery of road from Van Lear. Be sure PLAYLIST PICK: “Lady Sings music of Loretta Lynn. Lynn’s childhood has shown to look for Webb’s Grocery, the Blues” by Billie Holiday MVA2 MARCH 2018 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM MID-ATLANTIC EDITION NORTH CAROLINA Clockwise from below left: Wuxtry Records manager Nate Mitchell helps shoppers as they dig through crates of JJamesames TTayloraylor vinyl. Members of once-local bands like BBridgeridge R.E.M. have worked at the store. CHAPEL HILL While photographs of a young, long-haired James Taylor often show him in New York’s Greenwich Village or in California singing with Carole King, Taylor grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where his father was the dean of the medical school at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. The landscape of the singer’s native Piedmont region often comes into focus in Taylor’s songs, especially in “Copperline,” which recalls Taylor and his dog Hercules roaming together beside Morgan Creek. SEE IT: Not far from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, drivers can cross over Morgan Creek via the James Taylor Bridge on U.S. 15-501. GEORGIA PLAYLIST PICK: “Carolina in My Mind” by James Taylor WuxtryWuxtry RecordsRecords ATHENS wuxtryrecords.com VIRGINIA DESTINATION FOR MUSIC tourists, students, and the shop continues to showcase RRalphalph SStanleytanley Wuxtry Records has been in business local talent, including artists like Futurebirds, for more than 40 years and employed Lera Lynn, and The Whigs. MMuseumuseum A many of the musicians who would go SEE IT: Open daily, Wuxtry Records is just CLINTWOOD on to define the Athens scene, two of three blocks from the famous 40 Watt Club, ralphstanleymuseum.com the most famous being Peter Buck of R.E.M. which helped launch the town’s rock scene and Brian Burton, who’s also known as artist- into the national conversation. Before Ralph Stanley won producer Danger Mouse. A visit to Wuxtry PLAYLIST PICK: “Right Hand on My Heart” a Grammy in 2001 for his is a rite of passage for University of Georgia by The Whigs work in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, he was SANCHEZ MANUEL HECTOR MVA4 MARCH 2018 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM MID-ATLANTIC EDITION already a bluegrass legend. He toured the country first with his brother Carter Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. After Carter passed away, Ralph went solo and wrote some of the genre’s standards. Filled with artifacts from a career that lasted until he died in 2016, the Ralph Stanley Museum makes its home inside a historic four-story, columned house that’s also a workshop and convention center for bluegrass artists. SEE IT: Self-guided tours of the museum are available Monday through Saturday, but it closes for the winter between late November Country’s Genesis and mid-March. A new museum honors PLAYLIST PICK: “I’ll Fly Away” Bristol’s significant MOMENTS place in music history. by Ralph Stanley that matter most. Sally Mann a thousand crossings VIRGINIA The Floyd Here at 12 Oaks, you’ll find that Country Store there are a variety of activities Birthplace of Country FLOYD from which to choose, many of floydcountrystore.com which you’ll find completely new Music Museum After more than 20 years, and different. For example, wine BRISTOL tastings. Zumba and cooking classes. birthplaceofcountrymusic.org this general store’s Friday And then there are those precious, Night Jamborees have become a cultural touch- unscheduled moments, like simply N 1927, RALPH PEER set up shop in Music Museum, which chronicles the relaxing with friends. Our advice the city of Bristol, which straddles effects of the 1927 Bristol Sessions stone of Appalachian to you? Be open to anything… and the Tennessee and Virginia state and also holds the Rhythm & Roots music, where bluegrass schedule a lifestyle by your design. I line. Peer placed newspaper ads Reunion that brings musicians like and folk players convene These are the moments. inviting area musicians to cut Dwight Yoakam together with local to share and preserve the records with him using his brand- country and bluegrass players. new, portable recording equipment, SEE IT: Open Tuesday through Sunday, area’s musical heritage. Homes from the mid $400s to and he paid them $50 for each side. the Birthplace of Country Music SEE IT: The Floyd Country $1 million+. The resulting 76 songs transformed Museum offers visitors self-guided Store hosts bands almost “hillbilly music” into a commercially tours in addition to weekly concerts every weekend, and the viable genre, especially with two new and other events. The Rhythm & Roots Friday Night Jamborees acts he discovered during his time Reunion takes place during the third here: the Carter Family and Jimmie week of September. attract quite a crowd. Grab Through May 28 Rodgers. Now, Bristol is home to the PLAYLIST PICK: “Sleep, Baby, Sleep” a seat early. Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, recently opened Birthplace of Country by Jimmie Rodgers PLAYLIST PICK: “Merry Massachusetts. Supported by a generous grant from the Trellis Fund. Additional support provided Mountain Hoedown” by by Sally Engelhard Pingree and The Charles Engelhard Foundation. 2008 Green Oaks Parkway, COURTESY BIRTHPLACE OF COUNTRY MUSIC MUSEUM MUSIC COUNTRY OF BIRTHPLACE COURTESY The Traynham Family  Holly Springs, NC 27540 Sally Mann, Easter Dress, 1986, gelatin silver print, Patricia and David Schulte. Image © Sally Mann 12oaksnc.com ©2018 WSLD 12 Oaks, LLC. Equal Housing Opportunity. The amenities and features described and depicted herein are based upon current development NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART plans, which are subject to change without notice. Actual development may not MVA6 MVA7 be as currently proposed. References to housing products, builders and prices are ON THE NATIONAL MALL, WASHINGTON, DC · WWW.NGA.GOV subject to change without notice as well. MARCH 2018 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM MARCH 2018.