Evan Morgan and Michael DeVito of Magic Tuber Stringband performed live on Midday Music and spoke with host Evan Miller about the true story behind their latest album Heavy Water.
"It's about a town called Ellenton, South Carolina." explained Morgan. "The whole population was removed by the federal government in the 50's in order to build a nuclear site during the Cold War. So it's about this kind of eerie feeling of there being history on this land, but land that people can't access anymore. You know, replete with grave sites and churches and schools and just all of that having to be abandoned."
The oral tradition of folk music, the retelling of historical accounts throughout generations, is sometimes the only surviving piece of events lost to time. Morgan says this tradition is important because its easy for things to be forgotten.
"It's so easy to forget about things, especially stuff from like the mid-20th century. It's not a period that people really think about that often, but a lot was going on politically to shape society in the way that it is now, and it's really easy to lose track of those archives. It's interesting to reach back into those histories and make something out of it to kind of re-explore it."
Stream or purchase Magic Tuber Stringband's latest album Heavy Water on bandcamp.
