When Emily Epley joined a bluegrass band in college, she had no idea she would one day be in the epicenter of bluegrass music and culture. I studied classical voice in college,” she says. “A teacher invited me to join their band, saying I had a good voice for bluegrass.” Emily grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and went to college in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Her husband’s job brought her to North Carolina in 1995, and Shelby, North Carolina has been home for the past 25 years.
Emily was in corporate development until she had her first child. “I got a call from a lady at church who told me she was working on a ‘little project.’ The project director was moving to Texas, and the lady told me she thought of me.” The “little project” was to create two attractions as a destination to draw tourists to the community. “There was a group of volunteers trying to reinvigorate the community. They wanted to find a way to bring life back, so they began to consider what our community had that others did not have.”