September is National Recovery Month and on Saturday, September 28th, Hope in the Hills presents Healing Appalachia, a concert to help eradicate addiction in greater Appalachia. Musical acts include Tyler Childers, Brian Fallon, The Gibson Brothers, Arlo Mckinley & The Lonesome Sound, and Senora May. This event is held at the State Fair of West Virginia located on 947 Maplewood Ave in Lewisburg. Gates open at 12pm and the music ends at 10pm. (Video above features Tyler Childers at Healing Appalachia Concert in 2018. Posted by Jody Waller)

Tyler Childers’s music is a mix of country, bluegrass, and folk. He is a seasoned traveler on the Southern Americana music circuit and has a gift for incorporating authentic images into his story songs. Rolling Stone writes, “…the result is a stirring collection anchored by Childers’ one-of-a-kind voice that’s as crisp as a child’s but breaks with the pain and knowledge of a weathered old man.”  – Rolling Stone. He is from Lawrence County, Kentucky and a familiar face in Lewisburg. ‘Country Squire’ is his most recent and third LP.

Childers’ previous breakthrough album, Purgatory, was influenced by his now-wife, Senora May. “Feathered Indians” is a notable song on this album. “Well my buckle makes impressions on the inside of her thigh. There are little feathered Indians where we tussled through the night,” This is one of several songs on the album that celebrates physical love and the emotional connection that comes of it when it’s well-looked-after. More info: tylerchildersmusic.com

Brian Fallon is an American singer/songwriter and musician from Red Bank, New Jersey. He is best known as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main lyricist of the rock band, The Gaslight Anthem. Fallon recorded five studio albums with this band. Fallon has since released two solo albums: Sleepwalkers and Painkillers. More info: facebook @thebrianfallon

Bluegrass royalty Leigh and Eric Gibson (Gibson Brothers) step into what some might at first see as uncharted territory on their country-soul breakout Mockingbird, their latest album produced by Grammy Award winners Dan Auerbach and Fergie Ferguson. This celebrated bluegrass duo was named back-to-back Entertainers of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association in 2012 and 2013. More info: gibsonbrothers.com

Arlo McKinley has been busy building a name for himself as an honest singer-songwriter that deserves to be heard ever since his self-titled release in 2014 with his backing band “The Lonesome Sound”. Crossing genres of folk/rock/indie and soul music, the mission of writing truthful and honest songs always remains the same. Being billed alongside musicians such as John Moreland, Jason Isbell, Tyler Childers, Justin Townes Earl and many others have helped Arlo McKinley get his name outside of the local Cincinnati scene and have gained him fans across the states and across the pond. Arlo McKinley and The Lonesome Sound released their sophomore album “Die Midwestern Vol 1” in the summer of 2018 in hopes to grow their following and to become a household name in the “Americana” scene. More info: arlomckinely.com

Senora May “is an impressive mixture that’s a little of Lucinda Williams, but a metric ton of John Prine,” says Robert Dean with Face the Music. Her album, Lainhart, exhibits her songwriting techniques of storytelling through living and loving with the hope that these songs are the start of a long conversation between her encounters and her fans. This album is a fine introduction of her potential as a vital voice in the history of Kentucky and Appalachian culture. Learn more: senoramaymusic.com

Healing Appalachia’s mission is to produce events with the intent to raise funds to benefit projects and programs that aim to eradicate addiction in the greater Appalachian region. Drug overdose is the leading cause of death for people under the age of fifty in the United States. The Appalachian region has been dramatically impacted by the opioid and heroin epidemic. West Virginia, in particular, the only state entirely within the Appalachian region, gained national and international notoriety after 26 people overdosed near a housing development in Huntington on August 15, 2016. West Virginia has the highest rate of fatal overdose in the nation. Tragically, rates of death due to overdose continue to rise.

Join friends, loved ones, and musicians against drug addiction. For more information, visit healingappalachia.org or follow this event on facebook @hopeinthehillswv

– HashtagWV #117. September 2019.