Voices from the Hollow: What happened when the Blue Bloods met the Blue Ridge

Appalachia. According to popular mythology, it's a mountainous hold-over from colonial days, an all-white outlaw society mired in poverty and cliché jokes about family feuds. Throw in some stories about moonshine, add a few images of grimy coal miners and you're done. People who know better and try to preserve Appalachian history and culture are no match for developers greedy for more land and franchise locations. The process is irreversible, but the real story-hilariously funny, sometimes poignant, always surprising-can be told, savored and remembered.