T.J. WORTHINGTON works on a painting of Fred McBride playing the fiddle, Richard Joines playing the mandolin and George Eller playing the banjo.

Worthington works to preserve heritage in art

For the last four years, most who took a drive down N.C. 18 south would have the opportunity to turn off their radios as they drove by- if only for a moment-and hear the sounds of mountain musicians coming from a rock-shaped speaker that blended in with its surroundings.

The sounds came from Backwoods Beat Music, a business owned and solely run by long-time Alleghany resident and artist T.J. Worthington. Although the business recently closed its doors, Worthington continues on, trying to keep the musical heritage of the area alive through his artwork. In fact, samples of his work were recently featured in The Old-Time Herald, a magazine dedicated to old- time music that is published every other month.

The pictures Worthington submitted to and published by the magazine were those of area musicians, The Little River Boys, George Eller and Fred McBride, Benton Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys and Junior Maxwell.

Worthington noted he has been painting for years, and in the last year-and-a-half has geared his work to focus on mountain musicians, with an emphasis of those in Alleghany County.

Worthington explained, "The music is the last living element of mountain culture. It's the only thing I know of mountain culture that's still living and looks like it will be for quite a while yet to come.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News! Back