[gentle music] ♪ - [Elizabeth] Coming up on "Best of Our State," we'll explore the underground wonders of Linville Caverns.

And David Holt Spends a day with seventh-generation ballad singer Sheila Kay Adams.

- Their styles depended more on singing outside.

And as you know, when you sing outside, you know, there's all this room, and you can really turn it loose.

Inez Chandler called it off the porch strong.

[David laughs] - That's next on "Best of Our State."

We dip into treasured stories for a look at all the beauty and character of North Carolina.

[gentle music] Hello, I'm Elizabeth Hudson, editor-in-chief of Our State Magazine.

[curious gentle music] Deep within the heart of North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, Linville Caverns beckons curious souls to discover the wonders of a hidden world beneath the Earth's surface.

If you don't know what stalactites, stalagmites, and absolute darkness are, you're gonna.

We took a subterranean tour to walk amid the underground marvels of Linville Caverns.

[wondrous synthesizer music] - [Narrator] It started with a story.

Back in the 1800s, fishermen returning from a trip claimed there was treasure buried deep in Humpback Mountain.

Spurred by their curiosity why fish mysteriously appeared out of the side of the mountain, they followed a stream deep inside.

Imagine their excitement and disbelief as the light from their candle flickered off the gold hues of Linville Caverns.

It must have been like entering into another world, both frightening and beautiful.

For well over 100,000 years, water flowing through the mountain's limestone has carved out this underground labyrinth.

In 1937, nearly a century after they were first discovered, a group of businessmen formed a corporation to open the caverns to the public.

The business lasted only a couple of years before a devastating flood crippled the region.

The caverns were hard hit, wiping out buildings and the electrical system that powered the lights inside.

- It was at that time that my grandfather bought stock in the caverns.

And he was offered all of the stock, and he bought the caverns that way, and started rebuilding.

- [Narrator] Now, three generations later, the family is still managing the geologic treasure pretty much along the original lines: making improvements for safety and convenience, but preserving the natural beauty for all to enjoy.

- [Sarah] A lot of caverns, their biggest draw is the size of their rooms, the size of different formations and stuff.

We have a lot of color because of all the minerals inside the caverns.

- Now, don't cross the footing.

It's not a good idea to be the first one in.

- [Narrator] Entering the caverns, the first thing you may notice is that it's a little dark, a little damp, and a little cool.

- [Sarah] The temperature is 52 degrees and stays that way year round.

The only place that it changes is just inside the door.

- [Narrator] The perfect environment for all kinds of critters.

- [Sarah] We have granddaddy long legs.

They hibernate in there.

We have eastern pipistrelle and brown bats.

We have salamanders.

We have one spider that's named after Linville Caverns.

It was discovered here.

- Now, as you're walking right through here, this is what we call the bedrock table.

Millions of years ago, the spring bed led right here.

[gentle music] - The water temperature varies according to time of year that you're in there.

The water, we believe feeds from the outside, from North Fork of the Catawba River.

And then it flows through the caverns, and at one point it veers off to feed the bottomless pool.

It's been measured over 250 feet, and they didn't touch bottom.

Everybody remembers the bottomless pool and total darkness.

- [Narrator] The lights are turned off to give visitors a true sense of what it's like without the benefit of illumination.

- [Tourist] Yeah, it's dark.

Okay.

- [Narrator] Total darkness is startling, except perhaps to the bats and the so-called blind fish.

[delicate music] - They're not born blind, but a sort of film covering comes across their eyes as they stay in the dark for so long.

They have sight to a point, but we call them blind trout.

[delicate music] - [Narrator] Linville is considered an active cavern: the formations that decorate the inside are still forming, drop by drop, sparked by the rainfall on Humpback Mountain.

[delicate music] - [Sarah] It takes about three days from the time we get rain on the outside for the water to make its way down through the mountain and through the cracks and crevices to where it's dripping in there.

[gentle otherworldly music] - [Narrator] A drop emerges from the cracks and crevices, carrying the basic ingredient needed to create the underground marvels: the mineral calcite.

No longer able to hold the minerals collected as the water percolates downward, the drop deposits its tiny mineral load as a single crystal.

[gentle otherworldly music] Billions and billions of drops later, formations take shape.

[gentle otherworldly music] It's easy to see shapes in the formations the drops have made.

Drying tobacco leaves.

Or a wedding scene with bride, groom, and priest.

- We've had people that have wanted to have weddings there.

We did have one couple.

They weren't actually married there, but they sort of set a few vows there.

In these caverns, unlike others where you stand back and look at large rooms in large formations, here you're right next to formations.

But that gives you a better look and a better view of what's actually going on in the caverns.

This is our guess what formation.

It's the one formation that we ask all our visitors to name because it looks like so many different things.

Behind me is the frozen Niagara.

This is the largest and oldest stalactite in the caverns, starting from up at the ceiling and forming down.

Just down in this corner is the heart of the caverns.

It looks like a heart.

And above your heads is the profile of George Washington.

We ask from the beginning that you don't touch the formations.

When you touch it, the oil from your skin stays on a rock, and that prevents the mineral from it adhering to the rock to cause it to grow anymore.

And in the narrowest sections, we don't mind people touching the formations because we don't want it to close up any tighter.

- [Guide] Watch your heads as you come along.

- So there are low rocks and low places where you do have to duck and watch your head.

And there's one, we call it the headache rock.

Most people hit that.

You're looking at the fish and don't realize that rock's there.

We've all hit it too.

Most of us.

I definitely have.

[laughs] [wondrous music] - [Narrator] Modern improvements such as electric lighting have made the beauty of this cave readily visible.

It's hard to imagine, however, what early explorers might have seen, with only a candle or tiny hand lantern to light their way.

- In 1884, Thomas Edison sent a team headed by William W. Hidden.

He was in search of platinum to be used in Edison's incandescent bulb.

And he was in Linville Caverns.

He went as far back as you can possibly go, past where a tour goes, and didn't find the platinum he was looking for.

But everybody in his team scratched their names on the rock back there, so it's called Signature Rock.

- [Narrator] W. E. Hidden might not have found platinum, but he's credited with discovering another mineral in the area that's since been given his name: hiddenite.

This far back in the caverns, your senses have a tendency to play tricks on you.

- [Sarah] When you're in there, especially getting towards the back of the caverns, and you know you're the only ones in there, you can hear, it sounds almost like a woman singing way back in the back.

It's just the water coming across the rocks.

But it scares a lot of people.

- [Narrator] The watery siren echoes her song into the darkest part of the caverns.

- [Sarah] There is more to the caverns.

It goes back about the same amount that the public sees.

We don't intend to do any more opening of the caverns because it would endanger what's already there.

[gentle otherworldly music] - [Narrator] And what is there has been hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of years in the making.

It's hard to comprehend the extreme age of something like the Linville Caverns, but it's not hard to be thankful for the care the attraction has received from Sarah Davis and her family over many decades.

It's pretty well assured that future visitors will see just as much beauty and spectacle as people visiting Linville Caverns today.

[gentle uplifting music] [upbeat music] - [Elizabeth] Up next, we head to Madison County, where old-time Appalachian love songs echo throughout the valley.

David Holt spends the day with seventh-generation ballad singer sheila Kay Adams, who says listening to a Madison County ballad or love song is the best way to learn about life.

[upbeat music] [upbeat music] - [David] I've known Sheila Kay Adams for over 35 years.

- This neighborhood, where you introduced me on stage for the first time.

- [David] She grew up in the remote North Carolina mountain community of Sodom, which was a place where the old-time music never died out.

[upbeat music] ♪ I know, that I know, a place that you'll be mine ♪ ♪ Take you home, love you, kiss you all the time ♪ - It was Sheila who introduced me to the wonderful ballad singers in her community.

Folks like Dellie Norton, Cas Wallin, and Inez Chandler.

Today, Sheila is a master ballad singer, a fine banjo player, and an award-winning writer.

I sat down with her at the Owen Theatre on the campus of Mars Hill College, just to talk a bit about her music and stories.

Sodom is full of characters.

I mean, there's the music and then there's just the people themselves, who were unusual.

- Well, the place called Sodom.

- Is there a good reason why that happened, or do they know?

- You know, David, it's like everything else.

There's three or four stories.

- What's one you like?

- That I can tell?

- [David] Yeah.

[laughs] - Well, my favorite one is that it got its name when a circuit-riding Baptist preacher came through during the Civil War.

And there was a group of women who lived up a little road called Shakeride Road that were ladies of the evening.

And he, from the pulpit, said there was more sinning went on in that little place there than went on in Sodom in the Bible.

- And it stuck.

- And it stuck.

Yeah.

- Well, that's a good story.

Let's talk about some of the characters.

I was just thinking of, well, Cas, Virgie, Inez.

One of the people that seemed so important was Byard Ray.

- And Byard was my uncle.

He was a fiddle player, but he was also great banjo player.

And he taught me this two-finger style that, you know, that's played here in Madison County.

But when I became a teenager and saw you and Dwight Diller from up in West Virginia play, I changed my style.

Stopped playing two finger style and went to call him.

♪ Fly around my pretty little miss ♪ ♪ Fly around my daisy ♪ ♪ Fly around my pretty little miss ♪ ♪ Always drive me crazy ♪ [upbeat music] [upbeat music continues] - Now, why do you suppose the old-time music survived in Sodom, where it died out in many places in the mountains?

- You know, I think probably it was because there were so many folks over there.

Well, there were four families, you know, the Nortons, Rays, Chandlers, Wallins, that intermarried and intermarried and intermarried until that music tradition gene, whatever it is, got passed down.

- Got distilled.

- Right.

You know, and so out of 72 first cousins, you know, over half of them play an instrument or sing.

- You have 72 first cousins.

- I do.

Yeah.

- Wow.

Well, the traditional music, the fiddle tunes, the banjo were all part of that community, but I think the thing that really set Sodom apart were the ballads.

Tell us a little bit about the Ballad singing.

- Well, they called them love songs.

Granny called them love songs sung a cappoco, you know, which meant without accompaniment.

And it was only when I got into college that I found out that they were actually from the British Isles traditional ballots.

And I think the reason that those survived in Sodom, again, was because, you know, it was kind of that interconnected family community thing.

Their styles depended more on singing outside.

- [David] Yeah.

- You know, they did a lot of outside singing.

And as you know, when you sing outside, you know, there's all this room, and you can really turn it loose.

Inez Chandler called it off the porch strong.

- [laughs] I remember Cas used to say he would go out in the backyard and sing to the mountains just as loud as he could.

He had a very loud voice.

And those songs were useful.

It something to pass the time.

- Well, and it was also, Granny said, one of the best ways to learn about life without having to experience it.

- [laughs] That's true.

- You know, which I always thought was great.

Yeah.

- Let's sing one of those for the folks.

What would be good?

Maybe "Young Emily" or something like that?

- Yeah, which was Granny's milking the cow song.

- Uh-huh.

Meaning she would- - Milk the cow.

Right.

- milk the cow while she sang.

- While she was singing this song.

And every time I sing it, I can smell that smell of warm milk in my head.

So this is "Young Emily."

♪ Young Emily was a pretty farm maid ♪ ♪ She loved to drive her boy ♪ ♪ He drove in the main ♪ ♪ For some old game ♪ ♪ Way down in the low lands, low ♪ ♪ My father runs a public house ♪ ♪ Along yond riverside ♪ ♪ Go ye, go ye, and enter there ♪ ♪ And there this night abide ♪ - Interesting thing about these songs and stories.

A lot of them were kind of grim and about death and dying and terrible things that have happened, but folks over there always had a sense of humor about it.

- You know, they lived a pretty, you know, isolated, tough life, right?

- Very tough.

Yeah.

- And they had these great, dry, sophisticated almost, senses of humor and could find humor in just about everything.

- Mm-hmm.

It reminded me, tell a little bit about when Dellie, who was in her 90s, went to the doctor, and he said, "You gotta quit that chewing."

- Oh man.

Right.

- I mean, that snuff.

- That snuff.

I asked her how long she'd been dipping snuff, is what it was.

And she studied about it and said, "Oh, about 86, 87 year, I guess."

And he said, "Oh, Ms. Norton, you've got to quit dipping that snuff.

It's gonna kill you."

And Granny said, "Lord, I hope something does."

[David and Sheila laugh] - This is an area where family is really important.

Everybody's pretty much related.

in that whole community - In one way or another.

Yeah.

- In one way or another, you can find cousins.

And the music stayed alive because of the family, like you said - It was such a casual thing, David.

It wasn't like, "Okay, now we are going to have our music lesson."

- Right.

- And they would, say, drag a chair over here, and I'll learn you one of them old love songs.

- And how would they do that?

- They would sing a verse, and I would have to sing it back to them.

- Then they would sing a second, and I'd have to sing the first and second back to them.

So I learned a lot of them through the oral tradition.

You know, just them singing them for me.

The old love songs, I think, are endangered.

And not so much because there's not young folks that are singing them.

Because they are.

But they're out of context now.

You know, they don't belong anywhere.

There's not a culture that nurtures them and sustains them.

- Now, you're out performing and writing as well, telling stories, singing the songs.

Are you finding that modern audiences can relate to these old ballads at all?

- You can tell there's kind of an uncomfortable feeling there at the start.

And then all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, it's a story.

You know, this is not just a song, it's a story."

And they start paying attention to the story.

- You have to listen.

You have to think about what the words say.

- Like a movie, you know?

And that's what I do whenever I sing about.

I usually close my eyes.

♪ Oh mother, oh mother, come ♪ Because I'm watching it behind my eyes, you know, unfold like a movie.

♪ All in one ♪ ♪ Must I marry ♪ ♪ Fair Ellender ♪ ♪ Or bring the brown girl home ♪ ♪ Or bring the brown girl home ♪ - Great.

You've stayed pretty close to Sodom and certainly Madison County.

- Yep, never lived anywhere else but Madison County.

- What keeps you close?

[upbeat music] - Well, even though I've discovered that home really has to do more with people than it does place, [upbeat music] anywhere I've ever been, David, anywhere in the world, I've always looked back toward Madison County.

You know, back towards Sodom.

It's the first place I know.

♪ My home is across Blue Ridge Mountain ♪ ♪ Home is across Blue Ridge Mountain ♪ ♪ My home is across Blue Ridge Mountain ♪ ♪ Never expect to see you anymore ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm going back to North Carolina ♪ ♪ I'm going back to North Carolina ♪ ♪ I'm going back to North Carolina ♪ ♪ I never expect to see you anymore ♪ [gentle music] - [Elizabeth] Thank you for joining us for "Best of Our State."

We have enjoyed sharing North Carolina stories with you.

See you next time.

[gentle music] [gentle music continues] [gentle mellow music] - [Narrator] And Ivey Hayes is one of those painters whose work you don't soon forget.

[gentle music] Sinuous shapes swirl across his creations.

Brilliant colors present themselves in riotous array.

There are no shades of gray here.

Colors are so richly applied that the sounds and smells of the beach come close at hand.

You can practically reach out and touch the fish, choose a bucket of oysters for dinner, begin to know what it's like to work tobacco, or even pick cotton.

And you can almost hear the music, [relaxing music] and have a pretty good idea what Ivey Hayes dreams about at night.

[upbeat trumpet music] How did this man come to paint this way, as if the very rainbow has been summoned to his service?

- Actually, it started in first grade, really.

I had a love for the pencil, to draw things.

And so it was something that was in me I had to do.

I didn't have a choice.

I lived it, I walked it, I talked it, I dreamed it.

Everything was like art.

It was like life for me.

I didn't have to push myself.

It was in me.

It took hold of me.

And all I had to do was just do.

- [Narrator] So the boy who could outdraw his teachers was off and running, toward a future that eventually would allow him to make a living doing something he loved, although not before trying a variety of other occupations in different Carolina towns and then being thrown one critical curve ball that would change his life and his art.

If Ivey Hayes' first gift was his talent, his second gift was born from adversity.

- But when I moved back home in the early '80s, I started working at Federal Paper in Wilmington.

A few years later, I came down with an illness: rheumatoid arthritis.

[somber music] The doctors suggested to me as a form of therapy to start drawing and painting.

And so as a result of an illness, something of a positive thing came out of this.

- [Narrator] Ivey continued painting right along, despite his damaged hands.

Gentle but arresting watercolors in natural hues for the most part.

And then he was presented with a fresh vision for his art.

[gentle upbeat music] One bursting with brightness and distorted human images without discernible facial features.

And there were design elements reminiscent of Africa.

- [Ivey] When the Lord began to show me things, a whole new world opened up to use the bright colors.

And sometimes he would show me like four paintings, one right behind the other.

And usually were images of silhouette women.

These people have on, or ladies would have on these long flowing gowns, full of life, moving, sweeping, full of geometric patterns, you name it.

And it blew me away.

Literally.

I didn't ask for this gift.

It was given to me.

When I use color, It may not relate directly to what I'm painting.

So it is not about the fish, but it's more about color.

- [Narrator] And color is what makes everything come alive in Ivey Hayes' painting.

[soothing music] - When I paint, I become what I'm painting.

Though I have to get around right now with the use of crutches, physically, you look at me and say, "Now, how can he do that?"

But mentally, I feel what I'm painting.

I literally become what I'm painting.

The painting takes hold of me, and we become one.

[gentle music] - [Narrator] More information about Our State Magazine is available at ourstate.com, or 1-800-948-1409.