Abstract:
Forty miles southwest of Asheville is the Balsam Mountain Inn, a 100-year-old wooden structure railroad hotel. Merrily Teasley bought it in 1990 and undertook the restoration, which earned a certificate of historic restoration. There are no telephones, no television--just peace and quiet and an older form of entertainment, music. Teasley grew up in Eastern Tennessee and developed a love of country music. In 1996, she started a monthly songwriter series that attracts some big-time country musicians to the Balsam.