Journal

FIFTY RIVERS EPISODE #8. THE FRENCH BROAD. See the video HERE.   (this post is an example of the kinds of things you'll find on my Patreon page and my Substack page.  My Patreon page comes with downloadable songs. This 218 mile ancient beauty flows north from the Blue Ridge Mountains in Western North Carolina into Tennessee. I have camped on it and fished it a few times over the years. It has been part of my travels for as long as I can remember rambling through this area. The French Broad river is estimated to be one of the oldest rivers in the world—predating the Appalachian Mountains themselves. In more recent times, a large section of Marshall, North Carolina, was swept away by the debris coming downstream from Asheville, which of courser was also devastated by the floods after Hurricane Helene. I stopped there to make this short film of my song “River” for episode number 8 of the FIFTY RIVERS series where I go around the world to play this tune to raise awareness for those who take care of our rivers. I was fortunate to be in Marshall on a magical night when I could catch a few bands playing in the local establishments—Zadies-which used to be the Marshall jail, and Mal’s bar which was full of lively folks dancing to the band. I enjoyed some really good pizza on the back deck at Mad Co, which is also right on the river. The town of Marshall just felt like the coolest town on the planet this night. Seeing photos hanging in local businesses of the community folks who came together to bring the town back from the edge is very powerful. Seek out the videos of the damage from the 2024 flood where several buildings were destroyed. I felt the resilience in the town as an amazing art scene has risen up around this incredible community that bonded together to bring the town back from devastation. What is taking place in Marshall is as powerful as it gets for burgeoning art scenes in small town settings, where I witnessed a similar vibe to the musical scene I saw exploding in New Orleans after Katrina. It just felt so good to be in this town on this night with free thinking radicals rallying to keep the great human connection alive. Lovely to hear Hannah Kaminer and Liliana Hudgens sing.

These organizations help preserve the FRENCH BROAD RIVER

https://riverlink.org/

https://mountaintrue.org/

https://www.ashevillegreenworks.org/

https://conservingcarolina.org/tfbs/

as always, this nonprofit does work on multiple rivers across

North America:

https://www.americanrivers.org/