Susan Binder

My name is Susan Binder. I live in Price Hill. I grew up half in Price Hill and half in Los Angeles. So in Price Hill, my neighbors had big Appalachian families, and a lot of my friends were Appalachian, and we used to babysit after school at my friend's house. When their dad came home from work, he would get his guitar out. He was from Beattyville, Kentucky, and he would get his guitar out and play Rocky Top and other bluegrass songs, and we would sing along. And so I got to learn about bluegrass music firsthand, when I was a young kid, babysitting at their house, and I got to eat cornbread and soup beans, with fresh raw onions on the soup beans, for sure, and that was my connection.

When mountain people sing, real mountain people, that's a whole nother—that high, lonesome sound. So it comes from the way they talk. So that's my appreciation of Appalachian culture from living in Price Hill.