From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Coalfields region, southwest Virginia has long been rich in music venues, musicians, and fretted instrument makers, and its historic isolation helped preserve traditions passed down through musical families and shared with the community. Along the Crooked Road through the Appalachian Mountains, old time mountain music, bluegrass, gospel, and country music continue to thrive in museums, festivals, weekly concerts, radio shows, and jam sessions. In Patrick County, nine families of German, English, Huguenot, Ulster Irish, and African-American ancestry—the Spangler, Bowman, Shelor, Boyd, Foddrell, Vipperman, Pendleton, Gwynn (Guynn), and Cockram families—have enriched traditional music for over 200 years. Though small in population, Patrick County has produced many notable musicians, including the first string band from the county to gain fame, organized during the Civil War by Patrick County native General J.E.B. Stuart, with minstrel Sam Sweeney on banjo and Stuart as singer. Patrick County musicians also helped adapt traditional music to recordings and radio during the 1920s, with notable contributions from the Shelors and Spanglers, and the county remains musically productive, with nationally touring bluegrass bands led by Sammy Shelor and Kenny and Amanda Smith and old-time fiddler and bandleader Richard Bowman. Patrick County also includes scenic places such as the two covered bridges over the Smith River near Woolwine, Lover's Leap, and Pinnacles of Dan, as well as historic sites including Stuart's home, the Reynolds Homestead, the Hollow History Center, and the 1822 Patrick County Courthouse.