Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013 - 57

Jonathan Romeo

Erik Reece

Program Manager, The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail; Virginia
“I came to southwest Virginia as a classi- in-residence position brought him to
cal guitarist and composer, and once here, Richlands, Va. Three days before was was to
quickly became immersed in the traditional leave, 9/11 occurred.
music of the region,” says Romeo, who grew
He left New York that Friday, moved to
up in Richmond, Va. and came to Mountain Tazewell County and stayed.
Empire Community College as an artist-inIn 2008 he became interim executive
residence in 1990. “I fell in love with it.”
director of The Crooked Road, and program
He returned to Richmond, then came manager in 2012, and his focus is on TCR’s
back for another artist-in-residence position Traditional Music Education Program.
in Clifton Forge, Va., then back to
“I love working with youth musicians
Richmond, then to New York (along the and educators, and this work really touches
way, composing music for symphony and people – it makes them feel proud of their
ballet and working in film). His third artist- heritage, and the place in which they live.”

Senior Lecturer, University of Kentucky; author, journalist; Kentucky
Erik Reece grew up in Kentucky. A high
“I have this fundamental sense that the
school teacher inspired him to go into jour- creation and the creator are of one piece,”
nalism. After five years in Scottsville, Va., says Reece. “There’s an incredible environhe came back to teach and write and live – “I mental ethic in that kind of thinking.”
wanted to be a place-based writer,” he says. Though, he admits, “you don’t know when
The place – Kentucky – became his subject. you’re going to alienate someone” by talking
He’s written for Harper’s, Orion and The about it.
New York Times. A story for Harper's became
Reece teaches writing at the University
a book, “Lost Mountain,” which won of Kentucky, a challenge in a time where
awards from Columbia University and the students’ views of education and language
Sierra Club. He’s also written “An American are so rapidly changing. “If you can really
Gospel: On Family, History and the engage the students in something of subKingdom of God.” Much of his writing is stance, then they realize they have somefocused on Appalachia.
thing at stake.”
Al Garnto
Artist, Blairsville, Georgia
Al Garnto sees art where others don’t.
Besides painting and charcoal work, Garnto
is a sculptor who recycles materials he finds
in sawmills, welding shops, dumpsters and
old barns. His current project is the
Appalachian Sculpture Project, which,
when finished, will scatter “24 kinetic
sculptures from Georgia to Maine.”
It wasn’t an easy path: Garnto has a rare
form of dyslexia that wasn’t diagnosed until
he was in his 20s – after he was expelled
BRC

Click for a video of Garnto's
"Wind Sculpture Weathervane."

from school at age 15, he finished his GED
and enrolled in college but still struggled
with academics. An art professor at Young
Harris College realized the problem was a
learning disorder.
He went on to study at the Atlanta
College of Art; he returned to Blairsville to
open his fine arts studio in 1994, and has
stayed ever since.
“The Appalachian mountains are my
home and some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet,” says Garnto, “and the
Appalachian mountain people are some of
the strongest, kindest, most respectful people I have ever known.”
JULY/AUGUST 2013 | 57

Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013

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