Big Stone Gap took its name from a large stone visible in a gap and was known to wagoners on Daniel Boone’s trail as a day’s ride from Cumberland Gap. Musicians traveled in those wagons, and their descendants were later joined by a diverse population during the boom and bust cycles of mineral extraction and logging. Irish railroaders were especially musical, while Italians, eastern Europeans, and others added to the local musical culture. Busking musicians performed in Big Stone Gap and other coal towns outside workplaces and on the street, especially on paydays, as tunes were kept and traded and many of the high flying bands of the 1920s made the town a favorite stop. The local song mix reflected the coalfields, including ditties carried by railroaders, ancient ballads, tragic songs, and religious songs of many kinds. Among the legendary musicians from Big Stone Gap were the children of “Fiddling” Martin, an African-American blacksmith with a large family, including Roland Martin, a blind multi-instrumentalist and singer who made 78 rpm recordings, and mandolinist Carl Martin, a bluesman known for impassioned singing, zany songs, and humor. Big Stone Gap was also home to author John Fox, Jr, who wrote The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, later adapted into a stage play that became Virginia’s official outdoor drama and is staged there each summer. The town is also part of the Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, in a region where musical traditions were long passed down through families and communities and where old time mountain music, bluegrass, and gospel remain active through venues, festivals, concerts, radio shows, and jam sessions.