The Signal

Half a century ago in Taneytown, Maryland, a young couple – Dotty and Leroy Eyeler - started a bluegrass band together. Little did they know they’d become the matriarch and patriarch of a musical legacy:  The Carroll County Ramblers.  

Today, the band is anchored by Dotty and Leroy’s children, brother and sister Bonnie and Dale.  Thanks to the second generation of Eyelers, The Carroll County Ramblers are still going strong.

Producer Aaron Henkin is joined by folklorist Cliff Murphy for a special co-production of The Signal and folk-life program, Maryland Traditions.  Tune in for music, stories, laughs, and some profound philosophical reflections with members past and present of a bona fide bluegrass dynasty:  The Carroll County Ramblers.

(Special thanks this week to Shane Carpenter for his multimedia companion piece.  Check out Shane's other work at: www.thesharer.com or www.readyluck.com)

November 16th & 17th, 2012, on The Signal:  

We visit a nearly forgotten cemetery on the grounds of the now-shuttered Crownsville State Hospital, where patients buried their own.  Historian Janice Hayes-Williams walks us through the gravesite, and tells the story of the institution originally named, ‘The Hospital for the Negro Insane.’  We also talk with Paul Lurz, who worked inside Crownsville for 40 years.

Dan Fesperman talks about his latest book, “The Double Game.” The book has been called a “love letter to the spy novel genre.”

And writer Nancy Heneson remembers a bygone era, when her father worked as a druggist in the first-floor pharmacy of Baltimore’s grand old Altamont Hotel.

“For 19 years I lived on the streets.  I slept during the day underneath a bridge.  At night I would get up, stand on the corners, prostitute, get my drugs, use all night long, and I’d go back underneath my little bridge and I’d go back to sleep and I’d start all over again.”

-Tonier Cain, Team Leader at the National Center for Trauma Informed Care

These days, Tonier Cain travels the country running workshops for service providers at women’s correctional facilities.  What she has to teach, she’s learned from long years of experience.  Tonier has been arrested 83 times for crimes including prostitution, theft, and drug possession.  Behind her criminal record was a childhood kept locked in a dark corner of her mind for most of her life.  Tonier was finally able to confront the abuse she suffered during her early years, and since that revelation she’s been on what she calls a boundless ‘upward spiral.’

This week on The Signal, Tonier Cain shares her story.

October 19th & 20th, 2012, on The Signal:  

Trezana Beverley won a Tony Award in 1977 for her performance as the Lady in Red in the Broadway production of, ‘for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf.’ This month, Ms. Beverley is back in her hometown, directing that same play at Morgan State University, and we visit with her and her cast.

We preview the Baltimore Folk Fest, a celebration that’s bringing top-notch performers to the Station North Arts District.

From The Stoop, Pastor Amy Sens of Six Eight Church shares a story about keeping the faith.

Plus:  Versification from the official winners of Baltimore’s 2012 Senior Citizens’ Poetry Contest.