Loose Leaf Notes

1. I brake for psychedelic art.

2. I love my new bumper sticker.

3. Only two Grateful Dads showed up at the Buffalo Mountain Brewery on Sunday, but they were very entertaining and the Turner food truck fish tacos were great.

4. A country breakfast means fresh hen eggs and garden tomatoes.

5. Corn is the new candy.

6. The wrappings.

7. Speaking of candy, this is my favorite picture I took this weekend at the Floyd Farmers Market.

8. I fought off a black snake with a rake that was trying to get in the chicken coop. It brought some adrenaline but wasn’t as nearly as scary as the time I had to kill a copperhead that was in my house. More HERE.

9. Innies and Outies?  Like in the series Severance, which I am watching and which reminds me of the X Files.

10. Double the pleasure. Double the fun. It was a commercial jingle I grew up with featuring twins advertising Double Mint gum.

11. I love my vegetable garden but flowers are my real love.

12. Speaking of  twins.

13. Nope.

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-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on July 17, 2025.

It was a hometown show for sister and brother Aila and Eli Wildman at The Floyd Country Store Saturday night, the place where their music started.  “I first played the fiddle right up in that room,” Aila said, pointing from the stage during their 90-minute set.  It was the second show of a tour for their new album, Longtime Friend, just released by New West Records and recorded in Woodstock NY. They had just come from a gig in Nashville.

Aila and Eli grew up living a country lifestyle on a homestead in Floyd County. Eli briefly attended Floyd’s Blue Mountain School and both were homeschooled throughout their school age years. “The structure of their homeschooling was music lessons,” recalled their mother, Deb Wildman, who was a member of the pre-Wildmans band called the Blackberries.

Deb, who plays upright bass, added that Aila and Eli’s college education in contemporary music and liberal arts at Berklee Music School in Boston MA has been an instrumental part in the progression of their careers, but they were playing bluegrass at festivals and winning awards at fiddler conventions well before that.

Aila began playing violin/fiddle at the age of five and performed bluegrass gigs by the time she was seven. By the age of eleven she was a member of the Roanoke Youth Symphony, and by fifteen she was among the youngest players to win the Best All Around Performer award at the famed Galax Old Fiddler’s Convention (2018) and first place in the Old Time Fiddle category.

Eli has been Playing guitar and mandolin since the age of seven. He won first place several years in a row for his mandolin playing at Appalachian State Old Time Fiddlers Convention and first place at the Old Fiddler’s Convention in Galax.

Singer songwriter Dori Freeman opened for The Wildmans. Country Store co-owner Dylan Locke introduced the evenings fare by describing the featured musicians as “local super heroes of folk, traditional and original music.” He referred to Freeman as “one of the finest songwriters you’ll ever find,” and she proved him correct with her emotionally honest set of Appalachian Americana music.

Freeman, who has five critically acclaimed albums available, was accompanied by her husband Nick Falk on drums, banjo and back-up vocals. Falk, who produced Freeman’s latest albums, produced the Wildmans’ Longtime Friend album. Freeman and Falk reside in Galax.

The Wildmans’ Country Store concert featured a mix of originals and covers and traditional songs. Playing with the siblings were Max Hollenbeck on bass and Jack Davies on drums, both past fellow students at Berklee School of Music. Covers included songs by Emmylou Harris, Graham Parsons and Little Feat. Originals included the title song Longtime Friend, Sometimes, Desert Angel and Take Me.

“Shout out to Earl White who taught us a lot of these tunes,” Aila announced at one point. White is a mountain music fiddler, fiddle teacher and leader of The Earl White Stringband, as well as a baker and co-owner of Floyd’s Big Indian Farm Artisan Bakery.

Eli credited Doc Watson and Cream before breaking out into Sitting on Top of the World (a country blues song written by Walter Vinson and Lonnie Chatmon and first recorded in 1930) that both Watson and Cream recorded and which shows the variety of versions played and the variety of the Wildmans’ repertoire.

Their bluegrass foundations were evident but not front and center. Eli’s guitar solos complimented the arrangements and added an uplifting sense of instrumental improvisation to the songs.  Aila’s smooth and soulful vocals were sometimes haunting and always mesmerizing. Her fiddle playing stirred emotions or a foot tapping urge to dance. There was a jig, a train song, a ballad and traditional renditions.

A striking Appalachian storytelling song about struggle, family bonds and resiliency reflected the mountain music traditions that the Wildmans embody. The song Autumn 1941 (by co-writers Roger Brown, former Berklee College of Music President, and Mark Simos, Berklee songwriting professor) began… I was a girl in the hills of Catawba County / Fall ’41, another war about to break / I’d been raised up from a star / By a mother with a gentle heart / Fifteen candles on my birthday cake. The Wildmans made the song their own.

After closing with a fun-loving and rousing encore of Little Feat’s Willing, the musicians signed albums and CDs for the night’s enthusiastic audience members. New York is next on the tour line. Check out The Wildmans webpage HERE. – Colleen Redman

1. Nine months after Helene hit Marshall NC hard, my son’s Old Marshall Jail hotel is back open and Zadies restaurant is up and running.

2. But there are still so many signs of the floods destruction and the emotional toll it took changes people.

3. Joe and I, Josh’s brother and two nephews went to visit for him for his birthday. We had dinner at Zadies.

4. And breakfast on Josh’s birthday at Zuma Café where Josh got sang Happy Birthday to for the first time that day.

5. Later that day, we got in the river for some white-water rafting. I felt like we were going to war with all our gear and protective uniforms.

6. I claimed myself as the mascot. The picture above reminds me of the time we filmed a music video in Key West to Stop in the Name of Love. We called ourselves Colleen and the Funky Bunch.

7. Of course, there was blueberry pie, Josh’s favorite birthday desert, and another pie baked from an old time recipe by Josh’s 5th grade teacher that I won as a runner-up at a Musical Chairs contest. More singing.

8. Of course, there was someone else with the same birthday date as Josh celebrating with friends at the Old Marshall Jail.

9. Friends came for the occasion.

10. Josh got some Chantal coffee with labels custom made just for him by our friend Rowan.

11. We visited Josh’s clay compound and pottery studio.

12. Josh was on CNN. It aired on his birthday. He also heard that his name was called out when NC governor Josh Stein was on Stephen Colbert talking about Marshall’s recovery but it got cut out.

13. The moon was full that night.

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-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on July 10, 2025

Crowd attendances at the Floyd Small Town Summer events at the Warren G. Lineberry Memorial Park, are a testament to how popular the free, family friendly summer series is.

Presented by the Town of Floyd and sponsored by local organizations and businesses, the well-organized program is headed-up by Dylan Locke, the co-owner of The Floyd Country Store who has been playing and promoting music events for decades.

The fun begins every other Thursday night from June 5th until August 28th, 2025 at 6 pm. The series, now in its eighth summer, includes live music performances (everything from old time and bluegrass, Americana, soul, jazz, Cajun, country, rock and funk), an active Kid Zone and a variety of information and vending booths.

Vendors at the July 3rd Small Town Summer included Springhouse Community School, which offered a hands-on printing activity for all ages, the Floyd Asylum Seekers, the Floyd Chamber of Commerce and the Floyd Center for the Arts, which is hosting a summer long art project in partnership with Small Town Summer.

There are always lines for the party bounce houses and slides, but the face painting tent usually has the longest lines. Yard games, live goats, a book mobile and tie dyeing were all part of the Kid Zone offerings.

The show started with performances by Handmade Music School students who were attending the HMS teen music camp at the Floyd EcoVillage.

They were followed by two bands that are scheduled to play at Floydfest Aurora, July 23 – 27. Mackenzie Roark and The Hotpants, the Americana rock band from Richmond who won last year’s Floydfest On-the-Rise patron voted competition, was the headline act.  Singer songwriter and Floydfest On-the-Rise 2024 runner up Ranford Almond was also featured.

A winner was announced for a photo contest of the rainbow that appeared at the June 19th Small Town Summer, and a free five-day past to Floydfest 25 Aurora was presented to a lucky winner by Locke and Floydfest CEO John Mcbroom.

“It’s awesome. So Floyd,” said Locke, in between introducing bands and thanking sponsors at the July 3rd event.

Randye Schwartz, who’s been coming to Small Town Summer with her family for years, agreed with Locke’s “awesome” description. “It’s awesome to look out and see all these kids playing,” Schwartz said.

“I like live music outdoors for sure,” she elaborated. “I also like seeing people. There’s a lot of people I don’t see all year long, or hardly at all, who come out here, and that’s always fun.”

It was later estimated by organizers that the July 3rd event may have been their biggest turn out yet. Next up is July 17th Small Town Summer with musical guests Hope Clayburn and Shmazz and an after dark movie showing of The Lion King. – Colleen Redman

1. I played Musical Chairs at a lawn party recently. It came down to two of us and I was a runner-up. I felt like I was on American Idol.

2. I still like to name the fireworks. So many this year looked like scenes from James Webb telescope. More HERE.

3. While our porch is coming down our garden is growing up.

4. My daughter-in-law, a librarian, has a sense of humor. Her last post read: “Please do not paint your nails in a conference session. That is all.”

5.  I love Science Fiction but it’s been losing its appeal since the state of the world with AI, Climate Change and the insanity of Trump, who seems more like science fiction than reality.

6. Soundbites break skin / What isn’t said blares loudly / I watch the burning house / with people inside it / They show engulfed bodies / then move to feel-good fluff / while the warden tries to convince me / the firefighters are the enemy – Read Nightly News Prison Break, from Objects are Closer Than They Appear, in its entirety HERE.

7. I’m enjoying Mark Knofler’s new album, One Deep River. I could listen to him all day. This from his webpage: “The title track reflects Knopfler’s deep affection for the river that ran through not just through his childhood, but his whole life. ‘Crossing the Tyne is always on your mind,’ he says. ‘It’s what you were doing when you were leaving as a youngster and that feeling is always the same every time you do it. You’re heading out or you’re coming back, and it just connects with your childhood. The power of it doesn’t go away.’”

8. He had me at “the smart money ain’t on your dog now…” and ‘there’s a place in the song where he sings about the “beautiful redwood where my guitar came from.”

9. “Down on the river, the wind’s turned cool / It’s blowing all the way from Boston to Liverpool / At least the summer knows when to take a bow / Groovy nights and golden days / Feel they could might just slip away / And the smart money ain’t on your dog now / Ain’t on your dog now…” One Deep River

10. “You are one deep river, old friend / One deep river, amen / You’re one deep river, old friend / One deep river, amen / The wild geese are flying into the west / And your soul is heading to its rest / But your light will keep on burning like that evening star / And your song will keep returning wherever you are…” One Deep River

11. My dad had two answers when ask ‘how are you doing, Dad?’ On a good day he’d say, “I got out of bed this morning. I’m ahead of the game.” On a not so good day his answer was, “It’s a rocky boat.”

12. “Story of an old man in love: I am a happy man in love for many years with one woman who is from my hometown, who grew up a stone’s throw from my high school but was only three years old at the time, so I had to marry someone else while I waited to meet her as an adult. We are happy together and contented and though we disagree on numerous matters such as oatmeal (I love, she loathes), we live in harmony because I acknowledge that she is probably right. It isn’t the oatmeal I love but the brown sugar and raisins.” Garrison Keillor

13. “A baby’s cry is not just noise—it’s language. It’s how they say, “I’m scared,” “I’m hungry,” “Hold me.” But when no one responds, something inside begins to break. Science shows that babies left to cry without comfort can suffer deep, invisible wounds. Stress floods their body. Their tiny brains—still growing—learn that the world may not listen. This is how emotional neglect gets written into biology. Over time, these babies may grow up anxious, distant, struggling to trust or focus. Their immune systems weaken. Their hormones go off-balance. Not because of a single bad moment—but because no one came when it mattered most. This isn’t about spoiling. It’s about survival. Love shapes the brain. Touch shapes the nervous system. Comfort teaches safety. And when we respond, when we pick them up, we don’t just soothe—we protect. We build resilient minds and strong hearts. Because every cry answered is a brick in the foundation of a healthy, whole human being.” Imran Ali

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After the Goldrush

Paragon Park Ferris Wheels

The View from the James Webb

Mary Poppins’ Red Umbrella

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

The following first appeared in the July 3rd issue of The Floyd Press

The Old Church Gallery really knows how to throw a party. Their June 24th Musical Chairs House Party kept the fun in fundraising and provided the gallery with an opportunity to double their fundraising efforts through the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, a philanthropic organization dedicated to investing in the NRV community through charitable giving.

The party, which coincided with the CFNRV’s Give Local Giving Day, included live music, a silent auction of donated items, refreshments and musical chair games. It cast a spotlight on the gallery’s latest exhibit: “Memories Sit Here — Stools, Chairs, Benches, and Their Makers” and gave visitors a chance to enjoy the gallery’s cultural arts museum.

Spread out on the lawn under canopy tents, individuals and families enjoyed the music of Vic and Jane Zitta, The Floyd String Band All-Stars, and Willard Gayheart and Ricky Cox.

Watching friends and neighbors play Musical Chairs was a high point of entertainment, and winners of the childhood game won homemade cake or pie.

Donning a NRV Give Local T-shirt, OCG board president Alice Slusher spoke about the support the CFNRV gives to non-profit organizations and Giving Day events. “And we just like to have a party once in a while,” she said, adding, “We never had rain and we’ve never had heat like this either.” Paper fans were spread out for the taking and bottled water was plentiful.

“We have twice the non-profits in Floyd than other Southwest Virginia counties,” Slusher said. She estimated that eight of the top ten non-profits fundraising for Giving Day are from Floyd, listing Springhouse Community School, Floyd Center for the Arts, Plenty and the Handmade Music School. “We’re the smallest,” she said, noting that that last year OCG won a $15 hundred incentive grant for the most unique donors.

According to OCG co-founder and long-time art educator Catherine Pauley, the gallery was founded in 1978 as a community orientated gallery to host contemporary art exhibits and exhibits that preserve and showcase Floyd County’s heritage art, oral histories and mountain culture. The Gallery’s current permanent collection includes an early soapstone sundial, a spring bowl, woven coverlets, painted baskets and prehistoric stone tools.

The day after the Musical Chairs House Party, the OCG announced on social media, “We reached our matching $3,500 gift. Current total $7,663. Later this post was added: “We are so grateful to our many friends and supporters, with big thanks to the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, you all helped us win the “most donors” prize for Give Local NRV! Thank you!” -Colleen Redman

1. The latter or the ladder?

2. Something’s happening here.

3. I’m happy that my 17-year-old grandson is learning building skills. He’s very fit, capable and is easy going.

4. He got his start HERE. 

5. I’ve been told that construction projects look worse before they look better.

5. Through the roof or Threw the roof?

6. “Together We Rise:  To Floyd artist Charlie Brouwer, the assemblage of 150-plus ladders in Pulaski’s Jackson Park is a visual representation of what a community ought to be. Each ladder lent or donated by a community member “will represent their hopes and dreams, or the hopes and dreams of their church or school, or whoever they loan it in the name of,” the artist said. “And we’ll tie it together to all the other ladders from the community, so that they’re all both holding each other up and leaning on each other. So it’s a kind of a mutual support system … close to the ideal of what a community is supposed to be about, a collection of individuals who are concerned and care for each other.” It’s a universal theme that applies to all of the ladder installations that Brouwer has erected in communities ranging from Michigan to Georgia. – See a photo from Cardinal News HERE. 

7. At one time I owned almost every Joan Armatrading album. Her 7th studio album that came out in 1981 was called Walk Under Ladders.

8. I looked up the root of why it’s bad luck to walk under ladders, but there were so many answers, including the practical reason that it’s likely unsafe because there’s probably construction going on above it. It also reminds people of a hanging gallows.

9. We should have named our road Rhododendron Row.

10. Where’s the roof?

11. Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof… Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth / /Clap along if you know what happiness is to you / Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do…

12. Climbing the Ladder of Success HERE.

13. Now that’s a good day’s work.

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1. This is what I miss about my grandsons now that they are teenagers. A past flash back Oh Baby! post HERE. 

2. It’s a June moon / suspended in the sky / waiting for a poet’s push / to swing it

3. Waiting for the Dough to Fall.

4. When someone who knows you are a writer buys a bottle of wine in your honor.

5. Josh Copus: “I’m an artist and creative entrepreneur. And I was raised in Floyd County, Virginia, which is in the Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, in a very rural place. I grew up in the alternative community, so I was raised on a hippie commune, and my parents moved there to go “back to the land.” And so many people in my community were artists. That was quite common. So I had a lot of role models for how to do that and it never seemed like a weird thing to do.” – Read more about my son’s origin story as a wild clay potter, Q&A: Appalachian Potter Josh Copus has ‘Mud in the Blood’ HERE. 

6. Let the pool days begin.

7. Oddly, this happened.

8. Excerpt from my Facebook News Reel: “The United States once led the world. Now it lurches behind Israel’s shadow, like some punch drunk barroom bouncer, throwing billion-dollar tantrums that leave its allies uneasy, its adversaries emboldened, and its citizens staring down another quagmire they never voted for.” Oregon’s Bay Area

9. If the shoe doesn’t fit / how long will you wear it / before you ask / Whose shoe is it? / How many are there? / When did the first one drop? Read Monsters Under the Bed in its entirety HERE.

10. My latest astrology reading by Rob Brezsny, an unorthodox free will astrologer and then some:  Trust in the indirect path, the sideways glance, the half-remembered dream, and the overheard conversation. Anything blatant and loud is probably not relevant to your interests. PS: Be keen to notice what’s not being said.

11. Pendulum Swing – Hold on tight / to its rocky boat / when the world is spinning / out of control / All hands on deck / to make a careful twist / Not too far right/Not too far left

12. I had completely forgotten about the above poem which I found by putting the word “swing” in my blog search bar. THIS fun flashback also came up.

13. Rinse and repeat.

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-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on June 19, 2025. An estimated 400 people came together in downtown Floyd for Floyd’s No King Day, a nationwide day of peaceful protest that took place on June 14th in nearly 2,000 locations across the country.

Organized by the 50501 Movement, which stands for 50 states, 50 protests and one movement, the No Kings theme was conceived to bring attention to citizen concerns about government overreach.

Protesters carried homemade signs that expressed concerns about the current day Trump administration’s policies on immigration enforcement and deportation, civil rights and cuts to the federal government and public services.

There were signs that read “Hands Off Democracy,” “Protect Due Process,” “Tax the Rich,” “We Are All Immigrants” and “No Kings.”

 Participating citizens gathered at the comfort station by the Warren Lineberry Park and marched to the stoplight, where they spread out onto all four corners of Locust and Main streets, singing chants of “No Hate No Fear, Everyone is Welcome Here, “The People United Will Not Be Divided” and “This is What Democracy Looks Like.”

One couple, who were in town from West Virginia for the Floyd Country Store’s Friday Night Jamboree, reported that this was their third group protest this year.

Another participant from Patrick County stated that he was a first-time protester. “I’m an Independent, but I accidently became a Democrat last year,” he said, adding, “I hate getting embarrassed for my country.”

The wind picked up but rain held off. Protesters noted that the positive support by vehicles passing by was encouraging. A majority of vehicles honked in solidarity as they drove past. Some drivers and passengers waved or gave a thumbs up.

Musicians performed John Lennon’s “Imagine song” and other songs from the balcony of the United Country Real Estate, overlooking the protest.

It was a multi-generational event.   – Colleen Redman

Photos: 1. No Kings signs were the most prevalent at the No Kings peaceful protest in downtown Floyd on Saturday. 2. Protesters gathered by the entrance to the Lineberry Park at noon. 3. Approximately 400 attendees participated, carrying American flags and homemade signs. 4. They marched to the stoplight and spread out onto the four corners of Locust and Main Street. 5. Theater actor Cameron Woodruff, who dressed for the occasion, crossed the street with Karen Baker, a recent candidate for representative of the 9th district. 6. A large group gathered in front of the courthouse. 7. Vehicles driving by honked in support. Some gave thumbs up. 8. It was Oscar Joost’s first protest. Joost was raised in Texas and currently lives in neighboring Patrick County. 9. It was a multi-generational event.

1. Standing near our town’s one stoplight during the No Kings protest, I was caught in some shots that were later posted on Facebook by friends.

2. It didn’t rain but the wind was so strong that the sign I held up felt like a kite and I worried about flying away.

3. I had two signs exactly the same but with different messages. One said “Honk for Democracy” and the other one said “Love Thy Neighbor.” I saw a friend who didn’t have a sign so I gave her one. I meant to give her “Love Thy Neighbor” because I wanted “Honk for Democracy.”

4. So there I am for a solid hour thinking I was getting vehicles driving by to honk, and at the end of the protest I noticed that I gave away the wrong sign and mine said Love Thy Neighbor. So, they were honking on their own all along.

5. Back on the sidewalk, Colleen!

6. Dance like it’s Juneteenth!

7. Juneteenth was celebrated in Floyd the same day as the No Kings peaceful protest (story and photos coming soon). Hosted by Floyd Care with a mission to inspire Community Action for Racial Equity in Floyd County, Virginia, the celebration commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. Dancing to the music of Jerome Claytor and Touch of Class brought us all together… At one point Jerome came off the stage and up close and personal. I thought I was being busted for talking too loud! But it was a serenade. I wasn’t the only one! – Read June 14th Justice Bookends in its entirety HERE. 

8. The next day I didn’t know whether I wanted to cry or dance listening to the transcendent and emotional music of “In Concert with Nature: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons” conducted by Maestro David Wiley at the EcoVillage’s Celebration Hall. Bravo!

9. It was such a busy weekend and all I want to do now is weed my garden

10. Our supposed hen might have he/him pronouns.

11. Bands that recorded Little Red Rooster: Willie Dixon Little Red Rooster Howlin’ Wolf, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, Jim Morrison, The Grateful Dead.

12. Years ago when Joe and Josh and Dylan and I went to Key West we recorded a video as Colleen and Funky Bunch to Diana Ross’s song “Stop in the Name of Love.”

13. Does the chicken or eggs come first on my shopping list?

_________Thirteen Thursday

Juneteenth was celebrated in Floyd the same day as the No Kings peaceful protest (story and photos coming soon). Hosted by Floyd Care with a mission to inspire Community Action for Racial Equity in Floyd County, Virginia, the celebration commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States.

The music of Jerome Claytor and Touch of Class brought us all together. Here’s Joe dancing with the ladies to one of their songs.

At one point Jerome came off the stage and up close and personal. I thought I was being busted for talking too loud! But it was a serenade.

I wasn’t the only one.

I got my friend Ralph up on his feet.

And sang and danced to an old favorite.

We had so much fun dancing that my friends and I made plans to go down the mountain and hear the band in Roanoke soon.

The band’s version of the Commodore’s Brick House brought the crowds to their feet.

The Little River Missionary Baptist Church Choir performed.

Legendary Floyd County High School football coach Winfred Beale spoke on the importance of both events of that day and told personal stories of growing up as a boy when Floyd was segregated. “We get to stand up for what’s right and not let them turn back the clock,” he said.

Another highlight was when children’s artistic representation of Freedom Quilt designs were presented on stage. The quilt blocks were coded designs that helped enslaved people escape during the Underground Railroad times.