The Cloudburst Black and Bluegrass Band makes its home on Roan Mountain in the Kingdom of Willows.
Overview[]
Not far from Johnson City, Tennessee, the mountain range known as Roan Mountain spans the border between Tennessee and North Carolina. Known for many treeless bands and its relative isolation, the mountain was once a battleground between the Catawba and Cherokee tribes. In the mid 20th century, it became a tourist attraction, though it never attracted the crowds that flocked to other locations in the Blue Ridge and Smokey mountains. For many years, until it was abandoned in 1910, the hotel-resort known as Cloudland, set near the top of Roan Mountain, provided an inexpensive haven for vacationers to the area. The stone foundations of Cloudland still stand amid a growing forest of spruce and fir trees; a lonely testimonial to a bygone era.
Hidden from mortal eyes, though; cloaked by enchantments, a group of changelings has established a freehold atop the mountain. Openly flaunting their opposition to the Seelie Court of the Duchy of Appalachia, this motley of Unseelie faerie rebels have constructed a chimeric replica of the old Cloudland Hotel. They call themselves the Cloudburst Black and Bluegrass Band and perform at festivals throughout the region. Their music is a raucous fusion of bluegrass and African tribal rhythms (thanks to their eshu drummer Django Hillrunner) and their concerts are often the scene of spontaneous brawls and free-for-alls. They have a habit of disappearing whenever this happens, seemingly into thin air. The sound of their rehearsals has given rise to the legends of the mysterious "music of the mountains" sometimes heard along the ridges of Roan Mountain.
References[]
- WTA: Rage Across Appalachia, p. 59-60