Deck the halls and hit play on our curated Spotify playlist, which features a merry selection of classic and original holiday tunes by North Carolina artists.
Mark Kemp
An Our State Playlist: Cozy Tunes for Autumn
Curl up with our curated Spotify playlist, which features a comforting selection of tunes by homegrown artists — perfect for sweater weather in North Carolina.
An Our State Playlist: Mountain Music
Our curated Spotify playlist features a selection of Appalachian folk music and bluegrass — the perfect soundtrack for a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, from Sparta to Cherokee.
A Road’s Refrain
On fall break from college in the early 1980s, a writer and his loyal English setter took a road trip from Watauga County to the Qualla Boundary, accompanied by the sweet sounds of fiddles, banjos, and high-lonesome harmonies.
Taking The Plunge: WinterFest in Blowing Rock
You don’t have to dress up like the Statue of Liberty, but the curious customs of WinterFest are much more fun if you embrace the madcap spirit and dive right in.
Meet Clarence Claus
The Santa that so many have been waiting for has already wrapped Oprah’s presents and thousands more since an Apex couple created him for a line of holiday paper and stationery. Soon, he will appear under trees across the state.
Fonta Flora’s Legendary Brew
On a curvy road in the shadow of Shortoff Mountain, a farm-to-pint brewery embraces the legend of Fonta Flora and its long-lost agrarian community.
The Heart of Morganton
Merchants and their regulars in this Burke County town have banded together like family, uplifting and reinventing a community rich in nature, compassion, and creativity.
Color Amid the Kudzu
In 1999, a crew of urban artists descended on rural Moore County, painted some 25 tobacco barns and other buildings, and then zipped back up to New York City. Two decades later, folks still drive to Cameron in search of these curious murals.
