Ballads of Fancy Gap

“Down in the Virginia mountains,
On U.S. fifty-two,
There is a long old mountain
That truckers blood does stain.
Four miles from top to bottom,
That trailer brakes will burn,
Many curves ahead,
They call it Fancy Gap.”

From “Ballad of Fancy Gap” by Jim Marshall of Hillsville,VA

Some of my first memories are riding in the car with my parents, on US highway 52 up the steep incline to Fancy Gap, Virginia. Coming from North Carolina, it was a gradual rise, through Cana, and then suddenly, sharply up to the Blue Ridge Parkway crossing, to my family’s mountainside land. Rocky cliffs look down upon the highway, with no place to pull over, but then we would be above these cliffs and the views were (and still are) beautiful. I wrote my first song about this land (“Fancy Gap”) and now I have learned that the mountain is the setting for a number of songs, mostly about that steep and dangerous section of highway….

...like this song by Joe Willey and the Movin' Men, or "Fancy Gap" by Aloma...  

Fancy Gap has been an important passage point across the Blue Ridge escarpment throughout history. Its gap is just deep enough, flat enough for a ‘right Fancy road‘ as Ira Coltrane said in the 1830’s, and so came the Turnpike, a popular stagecoach route between the South and the Great Lakes. But it was a difficult climb for the horses, who had to stop and rest at a spot midway up the mountain. Early automobiles also had issues on the gravel road and so a tavern and motel were built at that midway spot where creeks crossed. Remnants of this tavern still stand just south of where our part of the land touches the highway, and I do remember passing this as a child. Eventually, this road became part of US highway 52 and it was the main road until 1977, when Interstate 77 was built over the gap, just to the west at a slightly gentler angle. (Source: http://Galaxscrapbook.com )

How bad the fog can get on a ‘right Fancy road:’

With I-77, it’s killin’ days will wane / But in the dreams of truckers, they’ll remember Fancy Gap.

Jim Marshall, “The Ballad of Fancy Gap”

Facing the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain, this ridge is steep and rough on its southeast edge. The fog and wind often build up here, making travel across the gap even more difficult. On the northwest side, hills gently roll into green meadows, a fertile Plateau eventually cut by the long, low New River valley (see previous post). This is considered to be part of the Crooked Road musical heritage trail in Southern Virginia, about midway between Floyd to its northeast and Galax on its west. Each of those towns host musical festivals in summer, and have for many years, bringing fiddlers, banjo pickers, and folk musicians from around the world.

“It didn’t look that steep on the map.”

“Rolling down Fancy Gap” by J.R.Williams, Nashville, TN

The community of Fancy Gap had a population of 237 in 2010. It sits at around 2900 feet above sea level and began as a camp and tavern sites, on the crest of the ridge.
Peace and stillness reside here, high on the mountain, where even on clear days rhododendron trees fill the dark hollows, and regrowth hides rusty old cars and a homestead lost to the years.

"We're just passing thru these hollows as Fancy Objects"         Arianna, from No Gap Deep Enough, 2018

"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" is a bluegrass standard written by Earl Scruggs and recorded in 1949 by Flatt & Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, then used in the car chase scenes in the film Bonnie and Clyde (1967). It's an appropriate song for driving down the gaps.

"Foggy Mountain Breakdown" performed by Roni Stoneman and band at RexFest 2017, Galax, VA  

Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among men. I delighted in his shade, and his fruit was sweet to my mouth.

Song of Songs 2:3
Apple orchards are abundant here, noted in this verse in the Hebrew Song of Songs my girlfriend read at our camp at the New River. 

I know dark clouds will gather round me / I know my way is rough and steep / Golden fields lie just beyond me…

traditional

When ascending the mountain to Fancy Gap I think of the folk song Wayfaring Stranger and these lyrics. Rhiannon Giddens' version from 2019 is one of my favorites. On our recent trip, the last week of April, we passed through Rhiannon's hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina, and then I played my version of the standard at our camp by the New River (Jordan, in a sense...see previous post)

We camped this time at Fancy Gap Cabins and campground, just off the Blue Ridge Parkway west of the gap. It has a tent area, RV sites, cabins as the name suggests, and a small hotel. There is an apple and a peach orchard and a short hiking trail on site. At the entry, one is greeted by the mural on the fence in the photo below. We enjoyed our experience here and recommend to anyone visiting or just passing through along the Fancy road.

Great photos of the old Fancy Gap road and the Double Branch tavern, as well as more details, can be found here.

Down the road here from me there’s an old holler tree

Where you lay down a dollar or two

Go on round the bend come back again

There’s a jug full of that good ole mountain dew

“Mountain Dew” by the Stanley Brothers