My Sweet Ashe County Home

 

Backstory:  My Sweet Ashe County Home©, Winding River String Band

 

The idea of the song My Sweet Ashe County Home© was born two years ago when my wife Teri and I took a trip out West.  We spent three weeks in Wyoming and Utah visiting National Parks.  We saw beautiful country.  And over the course of the trip, I was often reminded how much I appreciate Ashe County and North Carolina.  Somewhere on a winding Wyoming highway, I had the thought that I sure missed my sweet Ashe County home and my home state of North Carolina.  While we had a great trip, I was glad when we returned.

 

I have always been proud to be a native North Carolinian.  I love this state.  I’ve had the privilege and good fortune over the course of my life to have visited many of the states that make up our great country.  I’ve also had the opportunity to visit other countries.  But I’ve never had the desire to live anywhere other than North Carolina.

 

I was born and raised in Mecklenburg County.  I guess that makes me what you call a flatlander.  But I’m convinced that I have mountain in my DNA.  My family and I first visited the North Carolina mountains when I was eight years old.  I fell in love and it has been a love affair that continues to this day.

 

I went to college in Wake County at NC State University and when I graduated I took a job in the foothills of North Carolina in McDowell County.  I didn’t take the job for the money (it wasn’t the best offer that I received), I took the job because of its proximity to the mountains.  It was a great decision for me and while it only lasted five years, my love for the mountains was reinforced and grew stronger.

 

I wound up spending the bulk of my career in sales, based out of Guilford County.  My travels enabled me to visit almost every county in western North Carolina. I was drawn to cooler temperatures and low humidity, beautiful mountain scenery, clear mountain streams, and a less hectic way of life.   And I always dreamed of a time when I would once again call these mountains my home.

 

My wife Teri grew up in southwest Virginia in the town of Marion.  Her playgrounds were the not-to-distant White Top Mountain and Virginia Creeper Trail.  She and I always made weekend trips to the mountains a priority.  We’ve enjoyed camping, rafting, snow skiing and hiking during our mountain visits.

 

Teri and I were introduced to Ashe County by my aunt and uncle who had a home in Glendale Springs.  We made several trips to visit them while they were here and fell in love with the area.

 

In 2016, Teri and I decided it was time to pursue our dream of mountain living in earnest.  As we considered all the North Carolina mountain areas that we had visited over the years, we decided that Ashe County seemed to check all of our boxes and we decided to zero-in on this area for our search.

What we experienced in the following months only solidified and reinforced that Ashe County was the right choice for us.  We were already familiar with the beauty of the county, but it was the people we began to encounter that really made a positive impression.  Everywhere we turned, folks seemed to go out of their way to welcome us and assist us in a multitude of ways.  What we came to realize was that Ashe County people weren’t really going out of their way to be friendly, they were just being themselves.  We discovered a genuine-ness in the folks here that we have come to love and appreciate.  

 

There’s a line in the first verse of the song that says; Some were born here, some were raised here, folks agree here life is good.  Others blazed their own trail here and say ‘we got here as quick as we could’.  That line is taken directly from my experience with being part of the Ashe County community.

 

So when Teri and I returned from our trip out West, I had the song title, the tune, the chorus, and part of the first verse in my head.  The second verse came a few days later and I felt like I was on my way to song completion.  

 

And then Hurricane Helene hit.  The storm and its aftermath were unlike anything I had ever experienced (and I was around for Hurricane Hugo back in the 80s).  Songwriting and playing music took a back seat to relief efforts.  What I experienced and witnessed in the days, weeks and months that followed Helene was an outpouring of generosity coming from all over the state of North Carolina.  But more specifically, I experienced neighbors helping neighbors.

 

Mine and Teri’s experience with Hurricane Helene and its aftermath was up close and personal.  Our friends and neighbors Roger and Joye lost their backyard in a mudslide.  The church we attend down in Fleetwood was flooded and all of the contents were lost.  In both cases, these problems have not yet been resolved.  But there is a resilience in the folks in our circles of community.  And I have personally witnessed a deep, strong faith in God that has served as an anchor through the storm.  

 

While there has certainly been grief associated with loss, the grief has not defined us.  What does define us is a determination to overcome obstacles and once again become settled in our lives.  We’re not going anywhere.

 

So in the summer of 2025, I wrote the third verse to My Sweet Ashe County Home, and with that, the song was complete.  I later played it for my friends Roger Perry and David Stanley and their response was extremely positive.  Roger and David learned the song as well, and as we began to play it and share it with folks, the positive reception continued.  The message that we received from the folks who heard the song was that we needed to find ways to share it with a broader audience.

 

It was our good fortune to be connected with Justin Faircloth and Caroline Renfro of Buddy Holler Productions in Lansing.  Buddy Holler is a new recording studio with the mission of assisting musicians and other recording artists get their material professionally recorded into a format that can be shared.  Caroline and Justin heard the song and immediately encouraged us to make a recording.  Roger, David and I went into the Buddy Holler studio in October and got our first-ever experience with professional recording.  We had a blast!  And we came out with a digital recording that can be shared widely over a broad range of formats.

 

Currently, My Sweet Ashe County Home is available on all major streaming platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Amazon music and more.  You can search for the song on Google and find it instantly.  Our friends at WKSK The Farm have a copy of the song for use on their radio station.

 

Notes:

 

My Sweet Ashe County Home music and lyrics were written by Frank Little of the Winding River String Band.  It’s a song that attempts to capture the beauty of Ashe County and the people who live here.  Frank began writing the song in the summer of 2024.  When Hurricane Helene hit Ashe County in September 2024, the song project was shelved in order to focus on relief efforts.  The song was completed in July 2025.

 

Winding River String Band is:

David Stanley, acoustic guitar, vocals

Roger Perry, mandolin, vocals

Frank Little, resophonic guitar (dobro), vocals

 

David, Roger and Frank all live in Ashe County and enjoy participating in local jam sessions, sharing music with friends, neighbors, and family.  Playing folk and gospel music is a hobby enjoyed by all three men.  They all have been playing and singing music since they were kids.

 

David Stanley was born and raised in Ashe County.  He comes from a large family where music was a major aspect of family life and began singing as a child.  After graduating from college, David moved to Wake County for a career with the North Carolina Department of Transportation.  He and his wife Rose returned to Ashe County in 2017.  David has been playing guitar for almost 50 years.  He also plays bass guitar and autoharp.

 

Roger Perry is originally from Illinois.  A retired Methodist minister, Roger and his wife Joye moved to Ashe County in 2021.  He immediately immersed himself into the local music community and is a familiar face in a multitude of Ashe County jam sessions and is well connected with the overall Ashe County Music Scene.  While Roger plays a multitude of  musical instruments that include guitar, banjo, and mountain dulcimer, the mandolin is the instrument he is most often seen playing.

 

Frank Little is a native North Carolinian.  Originally from Mecklenburg County, he spent the majority of his career-related time in Guilford County.  Frank and his wife Teri were first introduced to Ashe County by way of an uncle and aunt who had a home in Glendale Springs.  They fell in love with the area and moved to Ashe County in 2017.  Originally a guitar player, Frank has dabbled in playing both the mountain dulcimer and hammered dulcimer.  In late 2022, he became captivated by the resophonic guitar (aka Dobro) and has since focused his efforts into trying to learn to play this instrument.  Song writing has been one of Frank’s hobbies for over 50 years.

 

My Sweet Ashe County Home is copyrighted with the United States Library of Congress Copyright Office.