Jim & Artie & the 10-4

Jim & Artie & the 10-4

10-4 HRC-1200
Hillsville, VA

(1977)

38619 ~ The Ballad Of Fancy Gap
38620 ~ Gypsy Motor Freight

Jim & Artie
courtesy of the Digital Library of Appalachia

The Ballad Of Fancy Gap (part)

"They call that killer mountain, Old Fancy Gap." Jim [James Marshall, born 1930] was a trucker at the time he wrote about the perilous route down old US 52 that was especially dangerous for truckers. The road claimed many a life back in the days before I-77 opened. Even I-77 has multiple escape routes for truckers whose brakes can't withstand the trip down the mountain. You can see the gravel paths cut up the side of the steepest points ... escape roads going to nowhere ... but saving many a trucker's life. They had them on the old road, too, but the hairpin turns caused too many truckers to plunge over the side of the mountain like Toonces the cat on SNL." [from Where the Orange Blossoms Grow, Lissie's blog]

The Digital Library of Appalachia has about twenty audio files of Jim Marshall singing and talking about his songwriting while on the road. Files can be found HERE.