From William: After the success of the recurring ballad swap in Marshall at Zadie's (2nd Wednesday each month), my seed saver friend Jim Veteto offered that we should try to start a ballad swap in Spruce Pine.  I told him I would give it a shot, and to my surprise, we've had a great run and a good turn out so far.  My hope in starting this particular swap was to encourage folks in our community to take up the practice of singing old ballads (hopefully local ones from local singers) and have a place where they could share what they were working on. 

Our swap is much like an open mic, we just ask that our singers perform traditional ballads--particularly old mountain ballads.  So far I have been very pleased that many of our singers are learning Bobby McMillon's material!  We've had guest singers pop in from as far away as merry old England. Occasionally some of the Marshall singers will come share their talents and repertoire at our swap.  Public, recurring, and open opportunities like this, specifically tailored to sharing ballads, are few and far between--and to be honestly I only know of one!  We aim to create a friendly and low stakes atmosphere where folks can "cut their teeth" as ballad singers, (though fair warning: the Mad Hatter is a working restaurant and at times the crowd can get a little "talkie-talkie" which can be distracting, but it will toughen you up as a singer!)