♪ ♪ ♪ Man: ♪ Mm mm mm, yep!

♪ ♪ Dulé Hill: Appalachia.

♪ You know, there's a lot of history here of bluegrass and folk music.

It comes from the pain.

It comes from the challenge.

It comes from the trauma of life.

Man: The Appalachian region is not for the faint of heart.

Different man: There's no family that hasn't been touched by addiction or abject poverty.

♪ There are people that are using the power inside them to affect change in their lives through expression, through art.

Woman: If I'm upset, I don't run for a drink.

I pick up my guitar.

Man: Descubrí que la música tiene el poder de sanarte.

La música es medicina para el alma.

Hill: The art is what inspires everyone here to keep pressing forward.

♪ I'm Dulé Hill.

As a lifelong dancer, actor, and singer, the arts are what drive me.

Art builds bridges.

Art creates change.

Art is powerful.

♪ Man: Welcome to the "Knott Downtown Radio Hour."

I'm your host Doug Naselroad, and once again, we're bringing our favorite people back to the "Knott Downtown Radio Hour," like this group of alumni we've assembled here tonight.

Despite numerous individual adversities, we've come back home to our little woodshop on the creek.

♪ Making musical instruments is mystical.

It's magical.

You take a chunk of wood, put your work into it.

You put your life, your spirit into making this thing just so, and at the end of it, when you've got this instrument finished and you have the chance to play it, there's all this joy that comes pouring out of it.

How could that not be transformative?

♪ Hill: I'm on the road to Hindman, Kentucky, to meet with Doug Naselroad.

A few years ago, he started the Appalachian School of Luthiery, along with a rehabilitation program for people in recovery from addiction, showing a pathway for people to find value in their life, to find a place in this world through the process of making stringed instruments.

Hey.

Naselroad: Hey, guy.

Hill: How's everything?

Naselroad: It's good.

How are you doing?

Hill: Good, man, glad to be here.

Naselroad: You're finding your way around Hindman?

Hill: You know what I mean?

Just working my way up the street and working it back down.

Naselroad: That couldn't have taken too long.

Hill: You see?

Ha ha ha!

♪ What is everyone doing here?

Naselroad: Jesse here is voicing a mandolin top.

I'm really proud of my guys, and if I had 100 of these finished and ready to ship, they could all go out tomorrow, you know.

I mean, we've got plenty of people that want them.

There's a tremendous history of traditional music right here in Hindman.

Ethnomusicologists would come to study the music of the mountains.

So much of what we think of as mountain music, it filtered through here.

Jesse: This one, you know, is close, but-- Hill: You see, this is the kind that I would play very well-- the kind that doesn't have any strings on it.

Naselroad: Oh, ha ha ha!

Hill: You know.

Ha ha ha!

When did you find yourself here in Hindman?

Naselroad: I was asked to come down here about 10 or 11 years ago.

I was working up in Winchester at the time.

I opened a shop in 1979 called Naselroad Guitars.

I think if you just work a few decades at making all kinds of instruments and you don't quit, eventually that people will start calling you a master craftsman.

Hill: And what was the reason for the need of a school of luthiery here in Hindman?

Naselroad: Give people something to do.

Hill: Mm-hmm.

Naselroad: Give them something that was cool to be proud of.

There used to be one industry here, and that was coal, and coal has sort of gone away.

There's a few operators out there.

They're doing their best to keep people working.

We've experienced a perfect storm at the downturn of the coal industry.

It's done a tremendous number on the people here because they don't have a job that they care about or a place to live.

They have no hope for a future, and they're easy marks for drug abuse.

Woman: County 911.

Where is your emergency?

Naselroad: OxyContin has just run rampant through the mountains like wildfire.

When I started the Appalachian School of Luthiery, a person came to me.

His name was Earl Moore, and he said, "Mr. Naselroad, I need to become a master luthier."

I said, "Well, all right."

I said, "You come to the right place."

Turned out, he was addicted to OxyContin, and in that moment, I thought, "Oh, my God, there is something at stake here that I hadn't anticipated."

♪ He went on to build 60 instruments, working day and night, and the program that we developed a few years later, which we called the Culture of Recovery, was designed based on our success with Earl.

♪ For the most part, the input into our program, our individuals come from the Knott County Drug Court.

Hill: How did the opioid crisis become a crisis here in Hindman?

Childers: Overprescribing and not realizing exactly what that was gonna lead to.

Naselroad: No one's family has gone untouched by this.

I mean, if there is one, God bless those people, but I don't know if I've really met them yet.

Childers: And I think we've learned that you can't incarcerate yourself out of... Naselroad: No.

Childers: the drug problem, and that's the foundation of drug court or treatment court.

That's the foundation.

Hill: What is the recidivism rate?

Childers: Well, any participant in a treatment court program, the recidivism rate is gonna be much lower than the average just parole or probation track, yes.

Hill: Right, giving another alternative... Childers: To incarceration... Hill: to incarceration... Childers: and the same vicious cycle over and over.

Hill: over and over again.

Childers: Yeah, yeah.

♪ Naselroad: I would love to see this turned into useful space for people in transition.

It's not ever gonna be fancy, but it really could serve a purpose for people coming out of the rehab center and going to work and rebooting their lives.

♪ This is Nathan.

Hill: Very nice to meet you.

Nathan: You, too.

Naselroad: He's building a guitar body.

He's our body builder... Hill: OK. Naselroad: and he's building the body part of the guitar out of a wood called Osage orange.

Nathan Smith came through our first batch of students.

He was a coal miner.

He was injured and fell into addiction and eventually got crossways with the law one too many times.

He was assigned here by the judge.

Smith: I started out in the school about 5 1/2 years ago, and I was just starting onto my road of recovery from addiction, and it kept me busy, kept me focused, kept me on the right path.

I've been clean now little over 6 years.

This has been a really big part of it.

Naselroad: Why does anyone care if we make a good guitar?

To me, it's the context of this helping someone build a better life, a healed life.

I can sit here with a straight face and say, "Yes, it's important."

We're building lives one guitar at a time.

He was remanded to our custody, and we never let him go... Smith: Mm-hmm.

Hill: Ha ha!

Smith: Pretty much.

Naselroad: not even for good behavior.

Smith: Nah.

♪ Hill: The rhythm and music of Appalachia for centuries has allowed people to connect and build community.

Even as the sounds of the mountain continued to evolve with each new generation of diverse artists, music always has the capacity to provide solace and healing in our darkest hours.

♪ [Cheering and applause] Man: It's our honor to have an incredible singer-songwriter with us.

She got one of the most powerful voices that we've heard, so please put your hands together for Amythyst Kiah.

[Cheering and applause] [Acoustic guitar playing "Black Myself"] ♪ Kiah: The way that music makes me feel is probably the closest to a religious experience that I've had.

♪ I want to jump the fence and wash my face in the creek ♪ ♪ But I'm Black myself ♪ ♪ I wanna sweep that gal right off her feet ♪ ♪ But I'm Black myself ♪ I've been able to... define and reframe and rethink about who I am and my place in this world through music.

♪ ♪ Is you washed in the blood of your chattel ♪ ♪ 'Cause the lamb's rotted away?

♪ ♪ When they stopped shipping work horses ♪ ♪ They bred their own, anyway ♪ ♪ Ooh, hoo ♪ I actually didn't get introduced to traditional music here in Appalachia until I was in college.

On a whim, I decided to take a bluegrass guitar class.

Little did I know that I entered this entire new world of music and really learned about origins and history of West African contributions to country music.

♪ You better lock your doors when I walk by ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm Black myself ♪ ♪ You look me in my eyes, but you don't see me ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm Black myself ♪ [Cheering and applause] Hill: When you think about the origins of bluegrass and country music, you might think of white artists like Bill Monroe or the Carter Family, but that's only part of the story.

Amythyst Kiah is building upon the rich legacy of Black artists playing traditional music in Appalachia, and her song "Black Myself" has earned her a Grammy nomination.

Kiah: ♪ I don't creep around, I stand proud and free ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm Black myself ♪ ♪ I go anywhere that I wanna go ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm Black myself ♪ Hill: When I first heard Amythyst's voice, I was completely blown away.

You don't have that kind of soul, that kind of passion, that kind of power without going through some pain.

Kiah: ♪ Black myself ♪ [Cheering and applause] ♪ [Cheering and applause continue] Thank you all so much.

[Birds chirping] [Train horn blows] [Knocks on door] Man: Hello, Dulé.

How are you?

Hill: Hello, sir.

How you doing?

Amythyst: Hey.

Man: Pretty good.

Hill: Dulé Hill.

Very nice to meet you.

Man: Yeah, good seeing you.

Amythyst: Hey.

Amythyst Kiah.

Yeah.

Hill: Amythyst, oh, very nice to meet you.

It's a pleasure.

It's a pleasure.

I love you got, like, all of these stringed instruments.

Kiah: Yeah.

Hill: I see a banjo.

Kiah: Yes.

Is it in tune?

That's the question.

♪ Kiah, voice-over: The banjo, its origins are from West Africa, so West African banjo music and Scots-Irish fiddling came together here in this region and became early country music.

Jerry Reed: Do it, boys.

Hill: When you first were getting into bluegrass and old-time music, what was the reception like?

Kiah: They would ask me questions that you could interpret as microaggressions-- such as, "Well, how did you get into bluegrass music?"

-- because of my skin color, like, "How did you get into this?"

♪ Reed: Yeah.

Kiah: It was always confusing to me when people would align their whether they were black or white to what they listened to.

I think what really important lesson I learned from my parents was that you don't have to let your skin color define what you enjoy listening to.

The more that I got into roots music and how important it was to Appalachia and Appalachians' identity, it helped me see, like, where I fit in in all of this.

Man: She wanted to play piano.

We didn't have room for a piano, so we had a talk about making some adjustments in the type of instrument that she wanted to play, so her next instrument was the guitar, so we went and bought a used guitar.

Kiah: Of all the gifts that my parents have ever given me, I had no idea how much it was gonna change my life in such a radical way.

♪ I was a tomboy.

My parents never tried to push me in any direction of whether I needed to play with Barbie dolls or whether I needed to ride a bike or whatever.

They just let me be a kid, and whatever I enjoyed, they just allowed me to enjoy it.

And then, once I turned 13, you know, eighth grade, going into high school, things started to get kind of confusing for me because I saw this pattern of, like, girls seem to be doing this and guys seem to be doing this, and what I was doing seemed to be more like what guys were doing, but I didn't quite fit in with them.

♪ The way that I processed feeling alone was through playing music, especially when my parents' marriage started to break down.

I knew that things weren't great because my dad was battling a drug addiction.

Sometimes at night, I could hear them arguing.

I could hear her crying, asking him to stop and him just being out of it.

Phillips: The marriage had its rough spot during that period.

It was just gut-wrenching.

Kiah: She was trying to, like, keep up with payments on the house.

She was also going through menopause at the time, so, looking back now, it's--I could see where you could have a moment of despair.

[Playing "Wild Turkey"] ♪ ♪ Late at night when I feel alone ♪ ♪ I cry in darkness, screaming to the unknown ♪ ♪ 'Cause she's never coming back ♪ ♪ No, she's never coming back ♪ ♪ Body and water for days and days ♪ ♪ Hopes for a safe return, my hopes in vain ♪ ♪ 'Cause she's never coming back ♪ ♪ No, she's never coming back... ♪ Phillips: The moment I found out she was a budding singer-songwriter was when her mother died.

She said she was going to work, and I called work.

She hadn't showed up, and she left a note in my truck.

Kiah: ♪ Tried so hard to be an automaton ♪ ♪ Body of steel and wired circuits for my backbone ♪ ♪ 'Cause she's never coming back ♪ ♪ No, she's never coming back ♪ ♪ Wild Turkey in the car seat ♪ ♪ The bottle's empty ♪ ♪ I hope it gave her some relief ♪ ♪ 'Cause she's never coming back... ♪ When they found the car at the Tennessee River with the bottle of Wild Turkey empty, the detective asked my dad, "Did your wife drink?"

We honestly have no idea what all she was doing to cope with things.

♪ Stayed numb for years to escape despair ♪ ♪ When your soul dies ♪ ♪ You just can't hide it ♪ ♪ Everyone can tell ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, will I ever feel?

♪ ♪ Phillips: She walked off in the river... ♪ and that's the last day I saw her.

Kiah: With depression, it's crazy how distorted your thinking becomes.

If you could hang in there for a couple more days or, like, maybe go talk to somebody, then maybe you'd feel differently.

♪ ♪ When I was 17 ♪ ♪ I pretended not to care... ♪ Phillips: At the funeral, she got up.

She wrote a song, and she sang the song at her mother's funeral.

Kiah: ♪ When your soul dies ♪ ♪ You just can't hide it ♪ ♪ Everyone can tell ♪ ♪ Oh, Lord, will I ever feel ♪ ♪ Will I ever feel ♪ ♪ Right again?

♪ ♪ ♪ Hill: Music can heal many unspoken things.

You never really know how a song is going to build bridges.

[Train horn blows] ♪ Man: If music can be a bridge to bring people into the same space, and they can bliss out dancing together on a Sunday night in Durham, North Carolina, or Johnson City, Tennessee, or in Richmond, Kentucky, then we're doing a good thing.

And if people from different walks of life can come into the same spaces and break bread and move their legs and laugh and cry and think, I think we're going in a good direction.

[Cheering and applause] Good evening, everybody.

As you already know, we are Larry & Joe.

Larry: Yo soy Larry.

Joe: And I'm Joe... [Laughter] Larry: Hacemos música de Venezuela y música de los montes Apalaches.

Joe: and we do a mix of Venezuelan and Appalachian folk music.

[Cheering and applause] [Playing "Nuevo South Train"] ♪ Joe, voice-over: Music is a joyous pursuit.

A human being in their natural state is joyous.

♪ That Nuevo South train's a-chuggin' ♪ ♪ It's chuggin' on around the... ♪ Larry and Joe: ♪ Bend ♪ Joe, voice-over: Music has the capacity to heal.

[Plays G chord] That's magic.

Ha ha ha!

Ay, qué marranito más lindo.

That's a fine pig, Larry.

[Song ends] [Cheering, applause, and whistling] [Banjo playing] ♪ Hill: We're here in North Carolina, journeying across this country to meet an artist by the name of Joe Troop.

Joe is a bluegrass artist who blends global musical traditions to challenge racism and xenophobia.

I love the idea of that because we may all speak different languages, we may all have different ideologies, but the music moves us all the same.

[Car locks, horn honks] [Chuckling] Hey, hey, what's happening, Joe?

How's everything, man?

Very nice to meet you.

Troop: Doing well.

Thanks for coming all the way to North Carolina.

Hill: Oh, glad to be here.

How did you get exposed to bluegrass?

Troop: My older brother Josh, he saw a restaurant on the side of the road, and it said, "Live music tonight-- Doc Watson and Friends."

♪ Troop: I was just completely mesmerized and transfixed.

I sat literally right in front of Doc Watson, who's a legend.

[Cheering, applause, and whistling] Ever since that moment, wanted to play stringed instruments and sing, and it was kind of like my launching pad into musical traditions around the world.

[Banjo and synthesizer playing] ♪ I grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

I'm from the Appalachian region, but the Appalachian region is not for the faint of heart.

♪ Bluegrass is associated with this region of the country and with some of the nastier elements of the society.

♪ As a kid, I was always attracted to Latin American culture.

Some of my best friends were from Central and South America.

♪ People in my family and in my surrounding would very openly say racist things.

Hill: Mm-hmm.

Troop: I heard a whole litany of--of expressions and, uh, incongruencies with reality 'cause my friends weren't that.

I felt like I was born into a messy situation.

There's a lot of hatred and a lot of misunderstanding.

♪ ♪ Being a queer teenager was hugely formative and enlightening.

Despite all the hardship, it gave me some tools to be able to empathize with other people.

I realized that a lot of the myths of my society were just dead wrong.

I wanted to see what else was out there.

♪ I spent 14 years outside of the United States, and everywhere I've gone, music has been the conduit for engaging with people.

I mean, I ended up teaching banjo in Argentina, teaching a whole lot of different people what I know about the instrument.

Hill: And then you say, "Let's form a band."

Troop: It was pretty obvious that the next step had to be, "OK. Now let's play Latin American folk on bluegrass instruments-- Che Apalache."

♪ We would take a salsa or tango and just play it on my instruments and do Latin American folk... Hill: Right.

Troop: on the banjo, for example.

Hill: So you picked up the roots of the music from here... Troop: Yeah.

Hill: but you have let it expand beyond here.

Troop: Right, and it meant something to a lot of people.

♪ Maria ♪ ♪ Maria del agua ♪ ♪ Maria del cielo ♪ ♪ Qué linda, Maria ♪ Troop, voice-over: We started exploring Latin American folk music with bluegrass instrumentation.

I thought that might have a future in the United States and might be some good medicine for people here because it challenges the notion of what a bluegrass band is.

♪ Corazón ♪ ♪ Yo ba ba oh ba ba ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey!

♪ I feel like art can be so much better of a way to say things than asking bluegrass audiences to consider a different perspective.

The music resonates with them... Hill: Right.

Troop: but then the message challenges them; for example, denouncing the border wall as a crime against humanity.

♪ There's all kinds of talk about buildin' the wall ♪ ♪ Down along the southern border ♪ Che Apalache: ♪ 'Bout building a wall between me and you ♪ Troop: ♪ Oh, and if such nonsense should come true ♪ ♪ Then we'll have to... ♪ Che Apalache: ♪ Knock it down ♪ Troop: Art can deliver where words can't.

Hill: Cannot.

Troop: Yeah.

♪ Of a land where freedom ♪ Che Apalache: ♪ Rings ♪ Troop, voice-over: In March of 2020, Che Apalache was in our fourth week of, like, an 11-week tour, and that band was no longer able to tour because the pandemic decimated our operation.

I was searching around and trying to find my North Star.

There he walked in.

Ha ha!

♪ Troop: A friend tipped me off that there was a brilliant Venezuelan musician living in Raleigh and working construction.

When I saw some videos of Larry, I couldn't believe my eyes.

♪ Troop: Oh, yeah.

You haven't met Larry yet.

Hill: No.

I haven't.

Troop: Oh, wow.

Hola.

Hill: Ha ha!

[People clamoring] Hill: Great.

Troop: Hey, gang!

Hill: Heh heh!

Hey, how you doing?

Bellorin: Good, man.

Nice to meet you.

Hill: Dulé.

Very nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you.

Yeah.

Woman: It's very nice to meet you, too.

Hill: Oh, same here.

Cipriani: I'm Athais, Larry's wife.

Hill: Athais?

Dulé.

Very nice to meet you, too.

Cipriani: A pleasure to have you here.

Hill: Glad to be here.

This is cool.

Bellorin: Do you like North Carolina?

Hill: I mean, so far.

I mean, it's lush.

It's beautiful.

It's--I mean, the-- I see that, the food going right there.

This is right up my alley, you see?

[All laugh] ♪ Hill: What is--this is right here?

Bellorin: This is cachapa.

Hill: OK. Troop: Yeah, we even have a song about it.

Hill: You know, I was just-- that's my song.

Like, that's the song that I-- that really connected to me.

Troop: Oh, yeah?

Hill: Oh, yeah.

You all get down on that song.

Larry & Joe: ♪ Miren la cara alegre que tiene ♪ ♪ Cachapa, la comió ♪ Audience: ♪ La comió ♪ Hill: This is the impetus.

This is the inspiration for the song.

Yeah.

Troop: He talks about the cachapa so much, I had to write a song about it for him.

Cipriani: Uh-huh.

Right, right.

Bellorin: Come on.

Hill: Hmm?

Bellorin: Little more.

Hill: Ha ha ha!

Bellorin: Mucho hungry, man.

Hill: Ha ha ha!

I shouldn't have taken such a big bite.

Cipriani: Ha ha ha!

♪ [Cheering and applause] Troop: ¡La comió!

[Acoustic guitar playing] ♪ Hill: How you doing?

Dulé.

Naselroad: This is Dylan Barber.

This is Dulé, Dylan.

Hill: Very nice to meet you.

Barber: Good to meet you.

♪ Even though you may have fallen down ♪ Naselroad: Dylan's one of our newbies, and early on, we learned that Dylan was a musician and a songwriter.

Barber: Music entered my life when I was about 13 or 14 years old.

My mom got me acoustic-electric guitar.

I was grateful, and I played, and I played, and I played.

♪ ♪ Don't let your past mistakes ♪ ♪ Define your life ♪ ♪ So, about 15 years old, I became addicted to opiates.

My dad was getting prescribed medication, and I was taking them from him.

Being that young and it being as common as it is, you don't really see a problem.

This is a way of life.

I thought it would make me a better guitar player.

I thought it would make me a better son.

I fell in love with the fallacy of what using was.

It was only by the grace of God that I didn't die.

♪ Naselroad: Coming close to death wakes these guys up, you know, the ones that survive.

Dylan came in with practically no shoes on his feet, and he had a lot of passion about his craft.

♪ Hill: The care, the precision that you have to put into creating something... Barber: Yeah.

Hill: what is that feeling like, knowing that you've put all this work into something, and then it creates a beautiful sound afterwards?

Barber: The feeling is nothing short of amazing, especially on the ones where you're struggling, everything you're doing, the wood's fighting against you or whatever it is.

Specifically with where I'm at in building necks right now, I have to say, "Hey, I need some help here."

Hill: There's power in being able to say, "You know what?

I need a little help right here with this."

Barber: There is power in vulnerability.

Naselroad: Stringed instrument-making, you don't get instant gratification.

You have to commit to this labor-intensive period of time where you have to keep coming back to it and back to it and back to it, but, in that process, they have fixed their obsession on doing this thing because you're putting your brain to work on something besides getting that next fix.

No one gets to be an island in here.

Barber: Right.

Naselroad: When you screw up, everyone's there to help you appreciate it... Barber: Yes.

I know they are.

Mm-hmm.

Hill: Ha ha ha!

Naselroad: and the brand-new piece of junk goes up on the wall of shame.

Hill: Is that the wall of shame up there?

Naselroad: That's the wall of shame up there.

It's actually full of-- well, actually, to be honest, a lot of that's flood damage.

This is Troublesome Creek, right fork and the left fork.

Two rampaging bodies of water met right here, probably about 15, 20 feet from where we're standing right now.

♪ The water piled up as high as the rooftops of some of these buildings, over the cars.

♪ And then the factory was destroyed.

The flood kind of decimated everything.

♪ When the town was destroyed by a catastrophic flood, that created a situation where I knew that if we didn't get everyone to work immediately, we were gonna have people who were at tremendous risk of relapse.

Smith: We cleaned and tried to salvage what we could as far as instruments and tools and our buildings.

Naselroad: We pretty much started in right after the flood because these guys needed something to do, so, right away, I decided we're gonna keep the payroll going and we were going to dig out, so my skilled craftsmen making these beautiful instruments turned into a bunch of mud shovelers.

♪ You can sort of see evidence of damage, but it's cleaned up a lot since we had that flood.

Hill: I mean, it seems a little reflective of some of the work that you do, though.

You help people clean up their lives and find purpose.

Naselroad: I just never get over the multiple layers of that, that helping damaged people clean up a damaged town in a economically damaged area.

I do feel like this work is a mission, and one of the reasons I do it is because, well, you know, been there, done that.

I've gotten in quite a lot of trouble with substance use.

[Playing "Say It While You Can"] ♪ ♪ I came back ♪ ♪ To tell you I was wrong ♪ I was a working musician in the seventies, and, um, cocaine, heroin.

If I wasn't strung out on it at one time, it wasn't around.

♪ Made up my mind ♪ ♪ To live another day ♪ Really, for me personally, the worst thing, the most destructive thing, the most damaging thing was just alcohol and a lot of it.

I could drink, and I did, and I--I tore up a few things, and that's where I meet these guys.

"I know how you feel, bud."

♪ I came back ♪ ♪ But you were gone ♪ [Song ends] [Train horn blows] [Sizzling] Hill: You play so much beyond the harp.

You sing.

How many instruments do you-- Bellorin: Yo toco alrededor de 26, 27 instrumentos.

Cipriani: Ha ha ha!

It's a joke, sounds like a joke.

Hill: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He just said it so casually, you know?

"Eh, you know, uh..." Ha ha ha!

Troop: So what do you think about música llanera?

[Cheering and applause] You like it?

It's the plains music shared between Colombia and Venezuela, and Larry is a master, and we love incorporating the 5-string banjo into that tradition.

♪ Bellorin: Yo soy de Venezuela.

Nací en un pueblo que se llama Punta de Mata.

Porque vengo de una familia humilde.

Nosotros somos agricultores de nacimiento.

♪ Bellorin: Cuando tenía 4 años, mi abuelita ponía en el tocadisco música ranchera, música mexicana.

Entonces había un cantante de moda en aquel entonces.

Pedrito Fernández.

Guau, me encantaba cómo cantaba.

♪ La de la mochila azul ♪ Fernandez: ♪ La de ojitos dormilones ♪ Bellorin: Entonces, allí yo creo que ya comenzaba a tener ese gusto y ese amor por la música.

Hill: And You played music in Venezuela.

What were some of the challenges that were going on at home that brought you here?

Bellorin: Aquí me trajo la situación económica.

del país.

Cuando salí de Venezuela, ya tenía una carrera de 25 años como músico.

Entre ellos, dar... ser profesor y músico profesional, como artista, cuatrista... Cipriani: I was a teacher, a musician.

Bellorin: Teníamos una escuela de música y, con el cambio de la desestabilización económica, comenzamos a dejar de tener alumnos.

Cipriani: We decided to close that school because we were not receiving more students.

Bellorin: En el momento que Chávez asume y comienzan las oportunidades a depender de una identidad política.

Reporter: To his followers, he is Venezuela's hope.

To his critics, he is, at worst, a dictator.

Bellorin: Si no tenías una identidad a favor de él o de ellos, tú no ibas a lograr nada.

Eso fue lo que pasó.

Cipriani: I used to work in PDVSA.

It was the most important oil company in Venezuela.

If I wanted to be there in the industry, I had to go for Chavez, and I didn't want it because, for me, it's not democracy.

That's dictatorship.

One day, one of the managers was saying, "You can't be here because you are not for Chavez," and then he called some people from the army around, and they took me out.

At that moment, we realized that we had to leave.

Bellorin: Nunca imaginé salir de mi país.

Era feliz en Venezuela.

Amo mi país.

Pero me tocó salir.

Eran dos sentimientos encontrados.

El primero era dejar mi carrera musical y saber que me iba a enfrentar a algo que no sabía hacer.

Ya, llegar acá, cambiar la vida para trabajar en construcción.

Mira, en muchos momentos, venía muy cansado.

No quería saber nada de la música.

No quería saber nada de instrumentos.

E, incluso, hubo un momento en el que tuve un accidente, donde una máquina cayó sobre esta mano.

Me la quebró.

Por acá entró un pedazo de metal, salió por acá.

Y comenzaron a dormirse mis manos.

Ya no quería tocar.

Cipriani: He was very, very brave to start working construction and doing what he was doing.

I know he did it for us, and I remember-- I'm sorry.

♪ [Banjo and upright bass playing "Hermano Migrante] ♪ Troop: ♪ En mi tierra natal ♪ Both: ♪ Andando por la sierra ♪ Hill: What was it like when you met Joe and then you got this now opportunity to start playing music?

Bellorin: Yo estaba en pleno día de trabajo.

Cipriani: And suddenly, he received a call, and that was Joe.

Bellorin: "Mi nombre es Joe".

Cipriani: "My name is Joe."

Bellorin: "Soy músico".

Cipriani: "I am a musician, and he said, "Well, I'm going to play in Durham on December 2021."

Bellorin: "¿Quieres participar conmigo?"

Cipriani: "Do you want to participate?

Would you like to be part of it?"

Troop: ♪ Gritan: "¡Calla, migrante!

♪ Both: ♪ ¡Esperanza no hay!"

♪ ♪ "Do your work without papers?

♪ ♪ Keep us fed and go die" ♪ Troop: We all got together, I was like, "All right, 'Hermano migrante'".

And I just remember him being like, "That's a good song."

We had instant alchemy.

We were finishing each other's musical sentences.

Bellorin: Lo nuestro fue amor musical a primera vista.

Troop: ♪ Sociedad descarada ♪ Both: ♪ Ni le entra a la mente ♪ Troop: The audience was deeply moved and gave us an immediate standing ovation.

We felt it.

They felt it.

That gives you reason to be.

Bellorin: ♪ La la ay la ♪ Troop: ♪ Ay ay ay ay ♪ [Banjo playing "Darling Corey"] Kiah: ♪ Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow ♪ ♪ Dig a hole in the cold, cold ground ♪ ♪ Dig a hole, dig a hole in the meadow ♪ ♪ We gonna lay Darling Corey down ♪ Hill: You cannot hear Amythyst's music and not be touched, not feel the power, not feel the pain.

I just couldn't imagine being 17 years old and having to reconcile with myself, with the reality that my mother left me.

Kiah: ♪ Dig a hole ♪ ♪ In the meadow ♪ ♪ Dig a hole in the cold, cold ground ♪ Kiah, voice-over: I really just repressed my grief and just tried to ignore it, and eventually, it led to alcohol.

♪ There's a reason why they call alcohol liquid courage.

It gives you the illusion that now everything's fine.

♪ I started to go out on the weekends, and then it turned into, you know, Monday and then Tuesday and Wednesday, and alcohol was the way to, like, not be anxious.

Phillips: I noticed that every time she got upset about something, she wanted to have a drink, and I knew then straight up.

I said, "This is not right."

Kiah: At that point, it was, like, self-sabotage.

All these things that I were doing was directly affecting my mental and physical health.

Phillips: She was so withdrawn that when she performed, she would look down, and she just played.

She couldn't look at the audience.

Kiah: Music no longer was my stress reliever.

Alcohol became the stress reliever.

♪ My dad, he saw the pattern that was gonna destroy my entire life.

Phillips: It took more than one talk... Kiah: Of course.

Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

Phillips: but at the same time, I was persistent, and she listened.

♪ Kiah: So I talked to a therapist, and I finally unpacked that the reason why I was doing all of this is because I had never really dealt with the grief of my mom.

Man: I can't wait to hear our opening act--Amythyst Kiah.

[Cheering and applause] Kiah: I've been able to reframe how I use alcohol now.

If I'm upset, I don't run for a drink.

I pick up my guitar, and I've learned to love music again for the original reason that I loved it-- the ability to be able to express my ideas and thoughts.

This song is a new one that I wrote earlier this year with a wonderful singer- songwriter named Sean McConnell.

This kind of feels like my theme song 'cause it's, uh, paying homage to...Appalachian Mountains, East Tennessee, where I'm from.

It's about me finding my way but with the mountains guiding me, I guess.

[Cheering and applause] It's called "Empire of Love."

[Playing "Empire of Love"] ♪ ♪ Concrete pillars ♪ ♪ Golden dawn ♪ ♪ There are kingdoms come and gone ♪ ♪ And we're living on ♪ Hill: I was aware of Amythyst's music before I met her, her being a dynamic talent, but I didn't realize the depths that it went, the pain and the trauma that she has come through, and it's an encouraging thing 'cause no matter what you're going through, no matter where you've come from, there's no place that's too dark, no place that's too challenging.

Kiah: ♪ Well, I don't want a theocracy ♪ ♪ Or some idle ideology ♪ ♪ We're all made from sun from above ♪ ♪ I pledge allegiance to my soul ♪ ♪ I follow where she needs to go ♪ ♪ I'm a pilgrim for the empire of love ♪ ♪ I'm a pilgrim for the empire of love ♪ ♪ I'm a pilgrim for the empire of love ♪ ♪ Ah ♪ [Cheering and applause] Kiah: Love you all.

Thank you so much.

We'll see you down the road.

Come by and say hi.

Thank you.

Woman: You were fantastic, so thank you so much for coming.

Kiah: Thank you so much.

Woman: Thank you.

Kiah: Thank you.

Woman: Really enjoyed it.

Kiah: Oh, that's awesome.

Thank you.

Ha ha!

Thank you so much.

[Camera shutter clicks] [Distant rain horn blows] Naselroad: We're bringing our favorite people back to the Big Tall Radio Stage.

In fact, now, once again, we have a Big Tall Radio Stage, and, of course, you know, we're here at the stunning, refurbished Appalachian School of Luthiery.

One year out from the flood, we're able to do this.

Once again, right here in the flesh, come all the way across the very creek of which we speak, Miss Sarah Kate Morgan... [Applause] and here is Troublesome Creek's own mud-shovelin', banjo-pickin' fiddle nut, Willow Cartier.

[Cheering and applause] [Notes play] [Dulcimer playing "Rats Gone to Rest"] ♪ Naselroad: The hard work of recovery is done by the people in recovery and their peers.

Peer mentoring is huge in the recovery community.

I found a way to gather them together so they can have a cohesive family under one roof.

These guys face to face are like, "Well, I'm not giving up," and then the other one is like, "No, I'm not giving up," and that mutual commitment drives them forward in a way that I never could.

♪ The very first class that we had, a student at the time, he was working away.

He stopped in the middle of it.

His eyes got real big.

I said, "What'd you do?

Did you get yourself?

You hit yourself with a hammer?"

He says, "No."

He looked around, he says, "I just realized," he said, "I'm making something."

♪ Well... ♪ I thank the Lord every day for a chance to be part of that.

♪ Morgan: Good job.

Cartier: We did it.

Ha ha!

[Cheering and applause] Troop: Immigration reform is a very important subject for this duo, given that Larry himself is an asylum seeker who had to hang up a 25-year career in music to migrate to North Carolina and fend for his family by the only means he could, which was working in construction, so he sustained a lot of injuries and went through a lot of hardship and sadness because he could no longer live off of music.

He did persevere, however, and, as of January of this year, both of us are living off of this duo, so he's back to music.

[Cheering and applause] Here's "Fiesta en Elorza."

Let's boogie down.

♪ Bellorin: Here we go!

♪ Both: ♪ 19 de marzo, un 19 de marzo ♪ ♪ Para un baile me invitaron ♪ Hill: Here in Appalachia, I've met artists facing some of the greatest adversities that life can throw at you.

What I found is that, instead of succumbing to the trauma, they've chosen to work through it, transmuting their pain into art, and through that, they're creating incredibly moving and intimate music that's breaking boundaries and shaping a new future.

Larry & Joe: ♪ Se despidieron mis ojos ♪ ♪ Se despidieron mis ojos de ese lindo panorama ♪ ♪ Troop: ♪ Vámonos ♪ Both: ♪ Para la fiesta en Elorza ♪ ♪ Vámonos para la fiesta en Elorza ♪ ♪ Vámonos para la fiesta en Elorza ♪ ♪ [Cheering and applause] Bellorin: Thank you!

Troop: Y'all, that was a great dance party.

Thank you so much!