Bourbon and Beef: Ragged Branch Craft Distillery

It was the best hamburger I ever ate... and the bourbon wasn't bad either.

For Savor Virginia Magazine, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Ragged Branch Craft Distillery in scenic south Ivy, near Charlottesville. I came for the bourbon and stayed for the burgers and hospitality.

Here, on the 92-acre Ragged Mountain Farm, Alex Toomy and his team grow and grind their own grain; malt, mash and distill it; and finally age and bottle Ragged Branch label bourbon. They also feed the bourbon mash to their cattle, and damned if it doesn't produce the tenderest beef you've ever encountered.

Go to the Savor Virginia website and read my feature article on Ragged Branch, and learn how the late bourbon master David Pickerell helped Toomy launch the brand.  The link is here. 

And for more on Ragged Branch Craft Distillery, go right here.

(Photo of Bootlegger courtesy of Ragged Branch Craft Distillery)

The History of Hardywood

Eric McKay and Patrick Murtaugh can recall the exact day that they knew the small craft beer venture they’d co-founded—Hardywood Park Craft Brewery—was going to make it.

“It was the first event at our downtown Richmond facility, July 4, 2012, just after it became legal in Virginia to sell in a taproom,” company president McKay recalls. Recently opened, the brewery’s small staff prepared for 500 patrons, but 4,000 showed up, he says. “People were everywhere. I’m sure there were attendees there who were like, ‘We’ve got to start a brewery.'”

It sort of seems that way. In Virginia’s exploding craft beer universe—from 35 to 200 breweries in just the past few years—Hardywood has led the way.

My in-depth Q&A with McKay and Murtaugh for Savor Virginia examines the history of Hardywood -- it all started on a sheep farm in Australia -- and how the duo continue to spearhead Virginia's craft beer revolution.

Read the article right here. 

And for more on Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, go right here. 

(Photo by the mighty Todd Wright)

Link Wray: The First Man in Black

"Rumble," released in 1958 by Link Wray and his Raymen, was an instrumental once considered so dangerous and subversive that it was banned on American radio, a tune so influential that it’s been credited with birthing both heavy metal AND punk rock.

The man behind this seminal blast of noise—a black-haired, leather-clad guitarist of American Indian origin—spent his formative years in and around Hampton Roads and came up with his most famous song at a Virginia sock hop.

"His rebellious look was functional," says Dana Raidt, the author of a new biography, "Link Wray: The First Man in Black," set for release in August from Bazillion Points Books. "He wore dark sunglasses because the light bothered his eyes ... he had really bad vision. And he wore the leather jacket so he wouldn't catch cold."

My article on the new Link biography is now up at the Coastal Virginia Magazine website, one of the many articles I penned for the mag's special May-June music issue.

Get the rumble by clicking this spot. 

And for more on "Link Wray: The First Man in Black," go here.

The Attucks Theatre at 100

If buildings could talk, the 624-seat Attucks Theatre would sing.

Originally constructed in 1919, this ornate Norfolk destination -- known for many years as The Booker T -- has been called "The Apollo of the South," but that's not exactly right, as the Attucks was constructed first.

The venerable venue is currently celebrating its 100th birthday with a new WHRO TV documentary devoted to its history as a music venue, movie theater, playhouse and community gathering place.

(And how's this for dream concerts? Dizzy Gillespie appeared here for a two-night stint in November 1946, and Newport News' own Ella Fitzgerald opened for him).

My historical feature on this important African-American showplace is now up at the Coastal Virginia Magazine website, one of the many articles I penned for the mag's special May-June music issue.

Hear the echoes by going here. 

(Photo of the Attucks in 1927 courtesy of SevenVenues).

The Backyard Beckons: North Shore Point

For nearly two decades, journalist Jim Morrison has been hosting intimate acoustic concerts on the back lawn of his Norfolk home, and not just any shows.

His North Shore Point House Concerts has brought acclaimed Americana singers, established bluegrass, folk and blues pickers, stripped-down rock 'n' rollers and even a few Grammy winners— the likes of Todd Snider, Steve Forbert, Della Mae, Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Kelly Willis, Marshall Crenshaw, Lloyd Cole, Nellie McKay and many more.

Lately, Morrison's nonprofit venture has been booking more performances in actual venues—like Old Dominion University Goode Theatre & Soundstage, Boathouse Live in Newport News, Norfolk's Toast and the Virginia Arts Festival courtyard.

My feature on NSP is now up at the Coastal Virginia Magazine website, one of the many articles I penned for the mag's special May-June 2019 music issue. The online version comes complete with some of Jim's favorite house concert moments, including video clips from past shows.

Take a trip to the backyard by going here.

And for more on North Shore Point, go here. 

(Photo of Steve Forbert courtesy of North Shore Point House Concerts)

The 'Norfolk Sound' Archive at ODU

Those rowdy party noises emanating from Old Dominion University these days might not be the work of the students.

The holdings of the late record producer Frank Guida, who helped popularize the rollicking “Norfolk Sound,” now reside in ODU’s Perry Library as part of its Special Collections. The Frank and Carmela Guida/Rockmasters International Collection includes original recording equipment, tapes, records, photographs, master discs, correspondence and legal papers saved from Guida’s active 40-year career as a music maker and a producer of artists ranging from Gary U.S. Bonds, Jimmy Soul, Bill Deal and the Rhondels, Lenis Guess, and more.

My history of the "Norfolk Sound," accompanied by photographs of artifacts from the archive, is now up at the Coastal Virginia Magazine website, one of the many articles I penned for the mag's special May-June 2019 music issue.

Join in the roar and read the article here.

And for more on the Frank Guida archive and ODU's Special Collections, go here.

Unsettled History: Virginia in 1619

My latest feature for Coastal Virginia Magazine is about the very beginnings of America.

In "Unsettled History," I write about a yearlong initiative in Virginia called American Evolution, designed to loudly spread the word about the events of 1619,  one year before the Mayflower landed, when the first assembly of American lawmakers convened in Jamestown, the first Africans arrived in Hampton, and a campaign to recruit groups of women from England was started in the New World. It was also—sorry, Massachusetts—the year Virginia celebrated the first English Thanksgiving.

Kickstarted by a $24 million state investment and buoyed by a bevy of high-powered corporate sponsors, American Evolution intends to rebrand the Old Dominion as the nation's birthplace and maybe even talk openly about the difficult birth.

Find out about the statewide celebrations and discussions, as well as what the City of Hampton is doing with its own yearlong 400th commemorative celebration, by reading my feature article, which is available in the March-April issue of Coastal Virginia.

Click and read it right here.

And for more on the American Evolution campaign, go here.

For more on the City of Hampton's 400th anniversary events, go here.

(Illustration: "First Thanksgiving" by Sidney Lang)

Scary Business: The Changing World of Halloween

AFRAID OF SHOPPING LOCALLY?

Halloween is now second only to Christmas in holiday sales, according to a report from the National Retail Federation. How big has it become? Last year, consumers spent more than $440 million just dressing up their pets.

So why are some local brick and mortar costume shops going out of business, or reporting sales decreases?

Just in time for the big fright, my cover feature on the selling of Halloween -- and the future of brick and mortar costume shops. It's now online at the CoVa Biz website.


Grab a clove of garlic and read "Scary Business" by clicking here….... IF YOU DARE!!

(Photo by the mighty David Uhrin)

Death Drive: The Colonial Parkway Murders

Colonial Parkway connects the southern edge of Jamestown to Yorktown via a winding 23-mile route that cuts through Williamsburg like a scenic scar.

Unfortunately, this bucolic thoroughfare will be forever associated with a brutal series of unsolved killings that occurred thirty years ago.

My latest Coastal Virginia Magazine story takes a look at the lingering questions and mysteries behind the Colonial Parkway murders. Among those I talked with were Victoria Hester and Blaine Pardoe, authors of A Special Kind of Evil: The Colonial Parkway Serial Killings, the first-ever book-length account of these four notorious double homicides.

Read the article at the Coastal Virginia Magazine website.

For more on A Special Kind of Evil, go right here

To learn more about the cases, and to share tips, visit Bill Thomas' Facebook page by clicking here.

The victims of the Colonial Parkway murders were, at top: Rebecca Dowski, Robin Edwards, Keith Call, Annamaria Phelps. At bottom: Cathy Thomas, David Knobling, Cassandra Hailey and Daniel Lauer.

Working For My Baby: Interview With Lenis Guess

As a writer, producer, vocalist and label owner, Lenis Guess was the architect behind some of Virginia's best soul and funk music, even if few outside the crate-digging music world (and diehard fans in Britain and Germany) know his name.

The gruff-voiced renaissance man -- who has also delved into theatre and filmmaking -- was an integral part of what is now known as "The Norfolk Sound." In the '60s and '70s, he
recorded indelible regional hits (and misses) for producer Frank Guida's local music labels, as well as his own imprints.

Check out my Coastal Virginia Magazine Q&A with this influential Virginia soul legend by clicking right here. 

Bound to the Fire: Virginia's Enslaved Cooks

Kelley Fanto Deetz says she’s “restoring culinary justice” with her new book, "Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine." 

“I think food is an important part of everyone’s culture, and it’s a topic that allows you to segue into talking about other issues, like race,” she says. “Everybody eats.”

The book, published by University Press of Kentucky, explores the lasting contributions of the early slave kitchens of Virginia—tracing everything from okra stew to collard greens to gumbo back to West African roots. Deetz pieces together the lives of the colony’s enslaved cooks, detailing their back-breaking labor and ingenuity, and her book includes centuries-only recipes created by slaves and passed down from generation to generation by white masters.

Some of the dishes that came out of the early slave kitchens will be familiar indeed. You probably ate them last night. My Savor Virginia Magazine interview with the Randolph College professor, and former chef, is now online. (And, yes, it does include recipes). Read the article here.

And for more on "Bound to the Fire: How Virginia's Enslaved Cooks Helped Invent American Cuisine, go right here.

Dangerous History at Blackbeard's Festival

"What people know about pirates is what they've seen in the movies, and that's as far from reality as you can get," says Randy Gnatowsky. "Like walking the plank. That wasn't done until the movies came out."

Gnatowsky, a retired 30-year veteran of the Hampton, Virginia Police Department, is better known under his pirate alias, "Constable Heartless." He's the captain of Blackbeard's Crew, a group of living history interpreters who partner with the City of Hampton to throw the annual Blackbeard Pirate Festival.

A two-day exploration of eyepatches, peg legs and cannon fire from tall ships,  this festival invades Hampton's downtown waterfront this weekend every June, projecting visitors back in time to the early 18th century when Virginia was awash in thieving buccaneers.

My article on Blackbeard's Crew, the Blackbeard festival, and the early days of piracy in Hampton Roads, is online at the Coastal Virginia Magazine website. You'll lose your head over it.

Sail here and steal it.    

And find out more about the festival right here.

(Photo: Hampton History Museum)

Take the Richmond Barbecue Tour

Too much pork for just one fork.

I don't do much food writing, but I have a greater appreciation for the work of my taste-describing brethren after my latest assignment from Savor Virginia magazine.

My cover feature in Savor's March/April edition is all about the barbecue renaissance happening in Richmond, Virginia. Tangy, salty, tomato-y, sweet, hashed, pulled, minced or deliciously charred -- whatever your preference, it can be found in the RVA region.

Some spots may be more authentic, others a bit more adventurous, or a little pricier, but RVA is filled with mouthwatering ‘que -- King's, Alexander's, Alamo, Buz and Ned's, Ronnie's, Extra Billy's, HogsHead Cafe, Q Barbeque and more.

Take the Richmond Barbecue Tour with me by clicking here, and don’t forget the bib.

(Photo by the mighty Jim Pile!)

Rediscovering Margaret Sullavan

Chances are, if you know Margaret Sullavan's name, it is because of the films she made with her longtime pal James Stewart -- like The Shop Around the Corner. Or perhaps you know the actress through the devastating book that her daughter Brooke wrote, a bestseller called "Haywire" that chronicled her later mental illness and suspected suicide.

But Margaret Sullavan once meant much more. At the height of her fame—the 1930s and early '40s—this Virginia tomboy was a mark of quality in American motion pictures, and a bracingly independent presence in a changing entertainment industry. Sullavan was not easy to miss, with a trademark husky voice and a chameleonic look that could be dowdy one moment and tinseltown glamour the next.

She preferred the stage, refused long contracts, chose her own co-stars, and made moguls (and Henry Fonda) cry. Her personal story is ripe for bio-pic plundering, and her relatively small body of work deserves rediscovery. Today, of all the actresses from Hollywood's golden era, Margaret Sullvan seems the most modern, the least stilted, the one player unlikely to succumb to a false moment even when everything else seems unnatural or dated.

Her own story unfolded in the best neighborhoods of Norfolk, Virginia.  My Coastal Virginia Magazine retrospective on Sullavan's life and career includes unpublished photographs from the archives of Chatham Hall, the Virginia school for girls that she attended, and a sidebar list of her best movies. Many of these gems -- The Mortal Storm,  The Good Fairy, Three Comrades, The Moon's Our Home, The Shopworn Angel  and more -- are currently available on Turner Classic Movies and through streaming services like Warner Archives and Universal Vault.

Learn all about "Sullavan's Travels" by going here. 

Unavailable on video or streaming, here's Sullavan's stunning film debut in "Only Yesterday" (1933)

(Bottom photo: Chatham Hall Archive)

The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel

“With this bridge tunnel we have destroyed distance and conquered time.”

After years of studies, plans, commissions and community angst, the congested Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel —nicknamed “Hampton Roads No. 1” by appreciative engineers worldwide—is about to get some much-needed relief. A $4 billion overhaul will see this key coastal Virginia passage expanded with another underwater tube.

But how did we get here? And how did this incredible submerged roadway ever get built in the first place?

On the 60th anniversary of it’s opening, my feature article in CoVaBiz Magazine reveals how the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel made history, changed the region, and continues to inspire and innovate. It's not just any ol' bridge-tunnel.

Connect with "Hampton Roads No. 1" by going right here. 

(Photo: The Virginia Department of Transportation)

Smoke 'em If You've Got 'em: Copper Fox Distillery

In another life, he was an insurance agent who had a light bulb moment at a malted whiskey tasting.

Now Rick Wasmund is known as the "Doc Brown of distilling," experimenting with single-malt whiskey by flavoring it with smoked fruit trees and malting his own Virginia-grown barley.

Now online: My Coastal Virginia Magazine profile of Wasmund and his thriving Copper Fox Distillery, which recently opened a new location in Williamsburg Virginia at the former Lord Paget Hotel.

Read it here.

And for more on Copper Fox Distillery, visit CopperFox.biz.

(Photo by the mighty Jim Pile!)

The Last of the Old-Time Moonshiners

A few years ago, working with the Blue Ridge Institute at Ferrum College, I trudged through the Franklin County woods to talk one on one with veteran moonshiner Jimmy Boyd.

Brewing up mountain dew has been a family tradition for Boyd, who learned how to cook up homemade whiskey from his brother, who learned it from his daddy.  “There’s something ‘mother about making it that just draws a person to it,” he says. “It’s almost like it’s habit forming, just like drinking it.”

My in-depth Q&A with Mr. Boyd, where he reveals the secrets of making illegal whiskey and recounts his clashes with revenuers and spying neighbors, has been published in the latest edition of Savor Virginia magazine.

Read "The Last of the Old-Time Moonshiners" by going right here.

And for more on the history of moonshine in Virginia, visit the Blue Ridge Institute's page right here.

(Photo by the mighty Pat Jarrett at the Virginia Foundation For the Humanities!)

Prohibition at the Library of Virginia

What a difference 100 years can make.

In 1914, when Virginians voted to completely ban alcohol -- three years ahead of national Prohibition—it was the start of an ambitious social experiment that seems worlds away from our experience today, as Virginia now wholly embraces wineries, craft breweries, distilleries and all things hooch.

My Savor Virginia feature article on the Library of Virginia's intoxicating (and, considering the changing times, ironic) exhibit, "Teetotalers and Moonshiners: Prohibition in Virginia, Distilled," has been posted to the magazine's website.

Click here and drink up.

And for more on this excellent Library of Virginia exhibit, and related events, go right here.

(Broadside photo: The Library of Virginia)

The Hampton Lego Club

 

When I was a wee lad, I loved building things with Legos -- and still do.

So it was no hardship at all to spend a fun Saturday afternoon with the kids and parents at the Hampton Public Library's Lego Club, one of many special Lego and STEM-related events that happen regularly in libraries, schools, community meeting halls and paid learning centers across Virginia.

Read my Coastal Virginia Magazine article on the regional popularity of Legos, and meet the inventive little builders at the jam-packed Hampton Lego Club by clicking right here.

(Photo by the mighty Jim Pile!)

Don't Mean Maybe: Gene Vincent and "Be-Bop-a-Lula"

At 60 years old, the song “Be-Bop-a-Lula” still seems improbable. Written by a hospital patient now lost to history, sung by a sailor with a crippled leg, performed by a ragtag group of country radio musicians, the two-minute, 34-second “Lula” has become an acknowledged rock ’n’ roll classic, celebrated the world over (Rolling Stone ranked it #103 on their Greatest Songs list). The story behind the tune, recorded by Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, is also a potent piece of Virginia history.

"Don't Mean Maybe," my latest piece for Coastal Virginia Magazine, takes a look at how "Be-Bop-a-Lula" came to be, and why it resonated over the years with so many later-influential performers -- the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jeff Beck, etc.

Vincent’s voice was not only chameleonic in the way that Elvis’s was—it was schizophrenic. Going from a drawling croon to a piercing cry, he was volatile, loving, temperamental, soothing; the ultimate “tough” teenaged child-man. His brooding performance, aided by deep, cavernous slapback echo, perfectly matched up with the tortured teenage fantasia being played out on theater screens at the time, in movies such as The Wild One, Rebel Without a Cause and Blackboard Jungle.

Click here to read "Don't Mean Maybe: The Story of 'Be-Bop-a-Lula'."

If you enjoy this article, you'll also dig "Virginia Rocks," a 2-CD box set and book of liner notes (co-written by yours truly with archivist Brent Hosier). You can get that here. In 2007-08, Brent and I worked with the Blue Ridge Institute to research Virginia's rockabilly and early rock 'n' roll history. For more on that project, click here.