Country music lovers should take the ‘Crooked Road’

With a long hot summer stretching ahead, country music lovers seeking a music festival showcasing bluegrass, ‘old-time’ and mountain music, will want to head off down the Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail, deep in Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. The Old Fiddler’s Convention at Galax – now in its 69th year - takes place between 4 – 9 August this year and attracts some 50,000 visitors annually.

Every August the purest strains of ‘old-time’ mountain music echo through the Blue Ridge Mountains at the Old Fiddler’s Convention oldfiddlersconvention.com featuring musicians and bands from across America and internationally.

The musical Heritage Trail was launched in July 2004 with a guidebook and driving tour CD (A Guide to the Crooked Road: Virginia’s Music Trail by Tom Druckenmiller amazon.co.uk ), to help the true country music fan follow the music. Deep in the Appalachian Mountains, the area is well known as home to June Carter, wife of Johnny Cash, who played his last two concerts in the area.

The Trail links six key venues – including the Carter Family Fold at Hiltons and some of the most scenic towns in the state - by colourful signs erected along the winding country roads. The music venues are authentic and range from old movie theatres, tin-roofed sheds, log cabin buildings and fairgrounds to parks. Local radio stations – such as WBRF-FM 98.1 broadcast live performances of local musicians and every Friday night at 8pm listeners tune into ‘Live at the Rex Theatre’ broadcast from Galax.

America As You Like It (americaasyoulikeit.com) offers fly-drive holidays to Virginia. An 11-night package, is priced from £1,065 per person (based on two sharing) including return flights with Virgin Atlantic from London Heathrow to Washington, fully inclusive economy car hire for the duration of the holiday and 11 nights’ accommodation.

For further information about travel to Washington, DC, Virginia or Maryland visit capitalregionusa.co.uk.