From the earliest days of settlement to recent times, Appalachian people have created music that has overtly evoked their everyday lives. Today, traditional as well as commercial songs and tunes from Appalachia reflect the various ways that the region's people have made a living--depicting such older trades as hunting, foraging, farming, herding, blacksmithing, and moonshining, and such modern occupations as railroading, coal mining, timbering, and truck driving.

Eighteenth-century British immigrants to Appalachia brought with them some songs about work. For example, "Old Bangum," a ballad about hunting, evolved from the traditional Scottish ballad "Sir Lionel." Most of the occupation-themed songs that circulated in Appalachia through the end of the 19th century, though, were composed by people residing in the region. After the Civil War, as industrialization expanded across Appalachia, emerging occupations yielded new songs and tunes. Railroads were built into the region