“New Lights in the Dawnland” Recorded and Produced by Michael Kline, Talking Across the Lines, Sunderland, MA Time 2:00:08“New Lights in the Dawnland” is a two hour audio documentary based on five individually recorded voices recounting 13,000 years of Indigenous history of Northfield leading up to the arrival of English colonists in the 17th Centu…

In honor of the 100th birthday of the late Juanita Nelson, we are posting this 11-minute audio teaser, a sampling of what is to become a longer piece imparting the clear and persuasive ways in which Wally and Juanita Nelson lived their lives. The Nelsons were beloved to hundreds of people. Wally and Juanita, who lived their final three decades in W…

Northfield, Massachusetts' Indigenous OriginsThis recorded testimonial is the account of an Indigenous resident of Northfield, Massachusetts, Joe Graveline, creating a sense of the town's pre-European history. Graveline's discourse is strongly rooted in archaeological and geological findings right around his own home and fields. He is open to the w…

“Brotherhood of the Spirit:” An Unvarnished Window into New Age Communal Life of the Post-Vietnam Era in Western MassachusettsRecorded by Carrie Nobel Kline and Joan Stoia for the 350th Anniversary of Northfield, Massachusetts Oral History Project in the Fall of 2022.This 65-minute audio recorded narrative offers a moving, compellingly honest accou…

Fiddlin' John Johnson (An 8-minute radio piece from The Home Place Series) Produced by Michael Kline, supported by the Humanities Foundation of WV (1979)John Johnson, born and raised in Clay County, was a towering figure in the circle of legendary West Virginia fiddle players. His father, recognizing the boy's talent as a five year old, invited nei…

Rick Rees, Michael Hoberman, Carrie and Michael Kline created this radio piece in 1993 for WFCR, Public Radio of Western New England. Michael Kline recorded the interviews and musical sessions that make up this production while serving as folklorist for the Pioneer Valley Folklore Society. With funding the Mass Foundation for the Humanities, we wer…

Remembering Blair Mountain was written and produced by Miranda Brown while interning with Talking Across the Lines. Brown weaves oral history interviews recorded by Michael and Carrie Kline and music from the The Blair Pathways Project, produced by Sara Lynch Thomason. The Klines' interviewees were marching to Blair to commemorate the original marc…

In this powerful 8-minute program, union organizer and widow from the Mannington/Farmington Mine Disaster tells Michael Kline of the last day she spent with her husband. In 1968, 78 miners needlessly died in a West Virginia coal mining tragedy. For a deeper understanding of what really happened and how it could've been avoided, read The Memo, a cha…

Civil War enthusiasts will be captivated by the unfolding story of the Allegheny Mountain campaigns of early 1861 punctuated by lively West Virginia fiddle tunes and songs, cradled in the ambient sounds of the surrounding country side. Digitally recorded interviews with Pocahontas and Randolph County West Virginia elders detail memories of their fa…

Although these stories, tunes and songs take place along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in northcentral West Virginia, they could be about many places in rural and small-town America. Part of Michael and Carrie Kline's 100-voice oral history project with 30 more musical performances by people along the historic road, themes in this podcast inclu…

Took Off Running is part of a series of audio history and musical productions that explore life along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, an early toll road through the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. Featuring first-hand accounts of local residents, this production brings to life voices of the region's inhabitants in a vibrant, fast-moving …

Voices of the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike is a series of audio history productions that explore life along the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike, an early toll road through the Appalachian Mountains of Central West Virginia. Featuring first-hand accounts of local elders, this production brings to life voices of the region’s inhabitants in vibrant sto…

[Excerpted from the CD jacket of Riding Freedom's Train: The Underground Railroad in the Upper Ohio Valley]Wherever there are instances of institutionalized oppression and cruelty, history provides us with examples of people who risked everything to free themselves. And often, people nearby have aided in the escape from bondage. Thus, from the begi…

Di Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

Born & Raised in Tobacco Fields is a 58-minute audio documentary telling the vivid and complex story of the Tobacco Buyout in Calvert County, Maryland in 2003, the most monumental change in the economic and cultural landscape of southern Maryland since its founding as a tobacco producing colony in 1634.With a score of voices and songs, this product…

Etta Persinger of Beckley, West Virginia describes a life of close knit family and church members, full of love and care. Close to her heart is shape note singing and "the old songs," as she calls them. Listen to her quiet passion and the power of the congregation "singing the shapes."Di Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

This production, layered with local voices and music, aired on West Virginia Public Broadcasting in 2008 and remains current today. Radio producer Jean Snedegar produced this 15-minute documentary in which Michael and Carrie Kline discuss the power of documenting spoken history through deep listening. For more on the Klines' work visit www.folktalk…

Charlie Blevins is an extraordinary musician and storyteller. A coal miner who made his home in southern West Virginia, he owned and operated the Red Robin Inn in the coalfields of Mingo County. Tune in for some the best and most authentic performances of traditional music you'll ever hear. Feel the pathos when he says the new highway, "Corridor G …

To rockin' tunes and blues numbers, Nathan Shelton and Brenda Jackson, alumni of Mount Hope High School in Fayette County, West Virginia, each tell of their own devastating collision with racism in their school years during the 1960s. They, along with Elinor Agee, discuss the ways in which interracial families have always been part of the fabric of…

In honor of the current Centennial of the March on Blair Mountain and Battle of Blair Mountain, we're reposting a favorite piece. Remembering Blair Mountain was written and produced by Miranda Brown while interning with Talking Across the Lines. Brown weaves oral history interviews recorded by Michael and Carrie Kline and music from the The Blair P…

Revelations: A Staged Reading Celebrating Appalachian Resiliency in GLBTQ People, was performed for its 17th time in Shepherdstown, West Virginia April 12, 2019 as part of the SpeakStory Series and is presented as part of our Talking Across the Lines podcast. We are available to produce it in your community with a volunteer cast over a fire day res…

To the tune of country blues and jazz, played by coalfield bluesman Nat Reese on guitar and Ralph Gordon on bass, African American educators and esteemed community members talk about the obstacles and impetuses related to getting an education. What were the losses in terms of community support for black students, once schools integrated? Students b…

Ollie Watts Davis and Willie Ben Pritchett paint pictures of their mothers, grandmothers, early teachings and shortfalls driven by alcohol in one case and racial discrimination in both. Willie Ben even gives a lesson on housecleaning. "Most people just organize a little," he says, detailing how much his mother taught him to survive, when she was ab…

Willie Ben Pritchett, an Honors Student, football and track star and glee club member, discusses the educational dead ends for black students at Mount Hope High School when he graduated in 1964, unless the students already had a family member with experience in navigating the college admissions process. Pritchett goes on to describe how he survived…

Di Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

In this interweaving of oral histories and music, natives of Mount Hope, West Virginia discuss their close knit relationships across racial lines in the 1940s to '70s, as well as the ways local adults shielded young blacks from institutional racism. "I never had to be false to myself. I could always be me. And I'm proud of that," says Mount Hope mo…

This West Virginia bluesman describes the span of his career throughout the southern coalfields. His dad came from Virginia "to shake that money tree," but precious little shook loose. Nat Reese expresses humor and pathos through music and narrative in this eight-minute production made with WV Humanities support by Michael Kline in the 1980s while …

Di Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

Di Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines

This is an eight-minute narrative and musical profile of the gas rush in central West Virginia with diverse voices and views produced by Talking Across the Lines on 4-18-14.Di Michael and Carrie Kline, Talking Across the Lines