[birds twitter] [consoling fiddle music] - [Narrator] From front porches to festival stages, these mountains have long been home to sounds shaped by migration, memory, and place, sounds that carry stories of work, of love, and of life in these hills.

[raring bluegrass music] - And you learn music from people.

When you introduce a song or a tune that you play, you often tell who you learned it from or maybe even where or a little anecdote about that song.

There's a lot of music that is specifically local to this place, so it's really, I would say, music of the people, by the people, for the people.

[expectant country music] [patrons speak indistinctly] [cheery country music] - [Narrator] Near the birthplace of the Blue Ridge Parkway at Cumberland Knob, you'll find the Alleghany Jubilee, in Sparta, where you can become a part of that tradition.

[cheery country music continues] - Hey!

- Whoo!

- All right.

[contemplative dulcimer music] - It's music that the musicians would play one way or another, whether anybody was listening or not.

It's really just the sounds of the place.

You know, we hear these birds.

We hear the air.

The breezes here and all those things kinda contribute to the way we think about sound and music.

And so there's always a song somewhere.

♪ I've worked for the rich ♪ [wistful music continues] ♪ I've lived with the poor ♪ - [Narrator] With mentorships and programs devoted to training the next generation of Blue Ridge musicians, the tradition continues to grow, evolve, and endure.

- [Brandon] You have all these powerful forms coming together to create one thing.

There's African American music, Cherokee music, gospel music.

I think it's the fact that there were lots of types of people here in this place and brought these different traditions together.

♪ How long can one ♪ - [Brandon] Music is celebrated in so many ways throughout the Blue Ridge.

♪ I've endured ♪ - I mean, how can you not be inspired to do something beautiful when you're a place like this?

♪ How long can men endure ♪ [birds twitter]