Hi David,

It's always a pleasure to listen to your songs and read those incredible stories about how you conceived them and how they came to be.
This song is no exception, although the melody is almost the happiest song in your oeuvre.
It's a very sweet/sad song; the melody sounds cheerful, but the lyrics aren't (well... sort of).
I recently saw a few videos on YouTube, all about Appalachia.
I've never really cared about that region, but in the videos, as you said, the people were stoic. I didn't detect any optimism; the videos were all about murders somewhere in the mountains, and no one seemed to care, except for one journalist.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the vocal harmonies (very good). I found the lead singer's voice a bit too sharp/harsh for my ears, but it did fit the story very well, especially in relation to those YouTube videos.

Well done,

Hans

Hans Berkhout
(Birchwood)
https://soundcloud.com/user-296497130