I started singing when I was about 3 and dancing soon after. Mom just started looking for outlets where I could perform and availed herself of any opportunity she could in the mountains of North Carolina in the '70s.

North Carolina was where you could have Thanksgiving and feel like it was Thanksgiving.

I love my State, because her people have been good and kind to me, and because her sky is above my home, as it will be above my grave.

....mountains. They stand at every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday life and shelter it from useless. dreads. In june they are walls of white rhodendron blossom. In autumn the forests set themselves afflame with color. Even winter has its icy charms.

Barbecue is the third rail of North Carolina politics.

This tradition is a very important part of the North Carolina heritage,