Nest of Singing Birds: The House That Wasn't There

Echoes of the South · Oct 22, 2026 · 1h 3m · transcript

For generations, the ballads of Appalachia have carried stories of love, loss, murder, and the supernatural. Passed from one singer to another, these songs preserve more than melodies. They preserve the voices and experiences of those who came before us.

For Nest of Singing Birds, those connections to the past extend beyond the music.

Carrie Genzel sits down with Donna Ray Norton, Sheila Kay Adams, and William Ritter to explore the traditional ballads of Western North Carolina, Appalachian folklore, family spirits, and a series of unexplained experiences during their visit to Macon, Georgia…