Movies, Books and Music from Bryson City

Movies and videos filmed in the North Carolina Smokies

Local musicians with a national following

Bryson City native Cody Shuler is a national touring bluegrass and Gospel artist who has over the years racked up Grammy, Dove, and IBMA nominations. He’s had six #1 songs on the bluegrass charts and also won Bluegrass Gospel Song of the Year by Singing News Magazine. He’s one of the many great Smoky Mountain bluegrass artists who began his career playing for Raymond Fairchild at the Maggie Valley Opry House. Then he joined Pine Mountain Railroad as leader, manager and part owner. He’s now with The Stained Glass Revival. Website

Swain County native, Seth Taylor is a member of the bluegrass band Mountain Heart. He has also toured with the renowned bluegrass group Dailey & Vincent. Seth began playing the guitar at age three, and then decided to pick up the banjo when he was eight. Seth has won several championships including Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina State champion. Seth’s biggest accomplishment was winning the Doc Watson Guitar Contest at Merlefest when he was only fourteen, and then one year later he won the Banjo Championship. Seth’s website

The Freight Hoppers. This high energy group features banjo, guitar, bas and fiddle. During the 1990’s the Freight Hoppers became the most popular modern day old time music string band in the world, forging the way for other groups in the Americana genre. They have had two critically acclaimed albums in the Top 20 of Billboard’s Americana music charts, toured extensively in the US, Europe and Canada and appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion”. Website

The Inspirations. Award-winning traditional southern gospel group for over forty years, that has sold well over a million records, has charted more than 60 hit songs, received numerous Singing News Fan Awards, been honored by different cities and states, and were regular members on the popular TV program Gospel Jubilee. Being asked to sing with the “boys from Bryson City” is a prestigious invitation. In addition to their traveling schedule, they hold their own “Singing in the Smokies” several times a year in the mountains. Several members are in the Southern Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Website

Marshall Grant (1928-2011). Born just outside Bryson City, Marshall began playing guitar at age 10. He played standup bass in Johnny Cash’s original trio and helped create the legendary singer’s distinctive rhythmic sound in the 1950s. He served as Cash’s road manager for almost three decades. He wrote the book “I Was There When It Happened: My Life With Johnny Cash.” (pictured Luther Perkins, Johnny Cash & Marshall Grant. photo: Southern Folklore Collection).

Side Notes:
International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame Member Arthur Lee “Red” Smiley is buried in the DeHart Cemetery in the Jackson Line Community just west of Bryson City. Red’s tombstone is a striking one, engraved with a guitar. Born in the Asheville area, Red was the grandson of John S. Smiley, a noted figure in Swain County history. Red was a pioneer in bringing bluegrass to television, performing more than 3,000 weekday broadcasts 1956-1968 on “Top O’ the Morning”, the first early morning country music TV show.

Rhonda Vincent “You Gotta Start Somewhere” music video. The video, filmed in Bryson City showcases the beauty of early spring in the Smoky Mountains. Locations featured Lands Creek Cabins, Clampitt Hardware, and Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.

Well-known Swain County figures

Many well-known area authors and musicians have been named above. Some other notables include:

Horace Kephart See story elsewhere on this page.

Mark Cathey. Hands down the finest hunter and the most adroit fisherman yet produced in the Smokies region. And he is equally renowned as a colorful character. Eyes light up with warmth and humor when “Uncle Mark” stories are being told. Born in 1871, he lived most of his life around Indian Creek Falls in the present day Great Smoky Mountains National Park about four miles north of Bryson City.

He earned his living as a lumber-herder, trapper, and hunting or fishing guide. Folks came from all over the country just to watch him fish. The epitaph on Mark Cathey’s tombstone in the cemetery above Bryson City, with its characteristic touch of warmth and humor, seems fitting: “Beloved Hunter and Fisherman Was himself caught by the Gospel Hook just Before the season closed for good.”

George Ellison, North Carolina naturalist, writer and historian who has taught Smokies lore for many years, has been named one of the 100 most influential people in the history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The 2016 honor came from the Great Smoky Mountains Association in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the birth of the National Park Service. George has contributed to republications of two Appalachian classics: Our Southern Highlanders and History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokee. He has also written numerous books, essays and poems about the Smokies.

Heath Shuler, a native of Swain County, represented North Carolina’s 11th US Congressional District from 2007-2013. He is successful entrepreneur and small business owner.

As a student-athlete at Swain County High School, he led the Maroon Devils to three North Carolina state championships and was named North Carolina High School Player of the Year.

From Swain County, it was a short trip over the Great Smoky Mountains to the University of Tennessee. While at UT, he set numerous passing records, was selected to multiple All-America teams, was named Southeastern Conference Player of the Year and NCAA Male Athlete of the Year, and was the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. He went on to play in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins, the New Orleans Saints, and the Oakland Raiders before an injury ended his football career.

Franklin Paul Rogers, born in Bryson City in 1905, was an American tattoo artist. He trained under Cap Coleman in Norfolk, Virginia from 1945-1950. He designed tattoo machines, which he called “irons”, a term he coined that is used in the industry. In his early life, he was in the traveling circus.