Hi BMoose...

Probably one of the best known North Carolina ballads is Tom Dooley (or Tom Dula), which has been recorded by everybody and his dog. The Kingston Trio << who incidentally won the best COUNTRY MUSIC GROUP award on its strength back in 1967 (I think) << recorded the most commercial version of it, but Doc Watson (a good ol' NC boy) did what I consider the best version.

Also the KT did a ghost-story song called Brown Mountain Light, which mentions Linville Mountain, so I presume it's also from that neck of the woods.

Some people claim the man, if not necessarily by the same name, on whom John Henry was based was a steel driver on the Swanannoa tunnel that cuts through the Old Fort mountain just east of Black Mountain. Does that qualify it as an NC ballad?

For more music from the area, try to get your hands on a Doc Watson songbook or ones by Billy Edd Wheeler (who taught folklore, I believe, at Warren Wilson College near Swanannoa) or Frank Profitt.

Sorry, gotta run.... If I think of any more, I'll be back on line when I can...

ddw