Down The Road On The Blue Ridge Music Trails Of North Carolina

In 2000, Helen White, a school guidance counselor, founded a music program in the Alleghany County, N.C, schools. She called it Junior Appalachian Musicians —or JAM. The program offered instruction in the traditional music of the mountains. To say that JAM has been a success would be almost as big an understatement as saying that Bill Monroe had something to do with bluegrass. Now over a dozen JAM programs (also known as Traditional Arts Programs for Students, or TAPS) play in the mountains of North Carolina. Rising stars from JAM programs are changing the face of traditional music festivals across the region.