Norton has produced important musicians for a century. Songwriter and ballad singer Kate O’Neill, later Kate Peters Sturgill, grew up there, began a string band in 1914, taught hundreds to play guitar, and was a pioneer on radio. Norton barber Byrd Moore was a premier country guitarist of the 1920s, recording with a half dozen prominent bands. Blues banjoist Dock Boggs lived there, and recordings he made 80 years ago are still in print. Pioneer bluegrass musicians the Stanley Brothers and Jim and Jesse McReynolds got their start on Norton radio station WNVA. Black string bands directed by Carl Martin performed on the streets of Norton. The Cooke Family of gospel singers are from there, as is bluegrass musician Jack Cooke. The Norton area also offers outdoor recreation, and from the summit of High Knob, on a clear day, Appalachian peaks in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Tennessee can be seen. East of Norton lies Coeburn, where the mountains have always influenced musicians and where the McReynolds family became a brilliant Appalachian musical dynasty. Grandpa Charlie McReynolds first recorded the family’s music as part of the famed Bristol Sessions for Victor in 1927. After World War II, his grandsons Jim and Jesse McReynolds organized the first of many bands noted for musical virtuosity. Jesse McReynolds invented a complex mandolin style, and the brothers became known for their walk harmony vocals and other contributions to bluegrass music. They were one of the bands that invented bluegrass, yet their personal style remained distinctive and instantly recognizable, and Jesse McReynolds continues to tour and perform at home as often as he can. This musical heritage forms part of the Crooked Road, Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, where southwest Virginia’s historically isolated communities passed traditions down through musical families, sustaining old time mountain music, bluegrass, and gospel through venues, museums, festivals, concerts, radio shows, and jam sessions.